Childhood Love Not Yet Dead
by o0Black-Sand0o
Summary: The Ducks are 17 and things have changed. Charlie, Connie, Guy and a few others are single and Adam hasn't dated anyone ever. The Ducks are always trying to talk him into dating, but maybe there's someone stopping him. Sorry for silly summary. It's good!
1. Reunion

_**I do not own the Ducks only the OC's I make up. Sorry for any mistakes, reviews would be lovely.**_

The Ducks were all gathered in the Bank's house, the extravagant and well decorated living room to be précised. They were all talking about what they should do. They had not spent much time together because all the non-Minnesota Ducks had to go home for the holidays. But now they were back, waiting for the start of another school year.

Just when they were trying to decide whether to get out of skates for the night or not, Adam's younger sister walked in. "Adam, have you seen my blue shirt? The one that says 'Dancer Girl'," Phoebe asked. At the moment she was in a pale pink skirt and a light blue tank-top that complemented her eyes.

"Nope, sorry, Phoebe. Why don't you ask Maria?" Adam answered.

"I already have," Phoebe whined, "I really wanted to wear it tonight."

"Where are you going?" Charlie inquired. He and Adam were so close they were like brothers so Kelly, Maria and Phoebe were like sisters, making him the over-protective brother, along with Adam and Jason, Adams older brother.

"Bowling with friends." Phoebe started searching the couch's cushions, looking for the top.

"Male or female?" Fulton asked, getting up as Phoebe searched his chair.

"Female. Oh, now I know! Aimee borrowed it." Phoebe rushed out of the room to call her friend. She came back moments later with the dead receiver in her hand. "Aimee and Jamie can't come bowling and Aimee does have my top. Adam, can you drive me over there?"

"Can't Maria?" Adam passed the request to his older sister.

"Nope, she's on the phone trying to talk Kristy out of bailing. Apparently she has some family thing to do." Phoebe pouted at her brother. "Please, please, Adam? I love you."

"Fine." Adam gave in. He grabbed the car keys before turning to his teammates. "I'll be back soon. Try to think of something to do in the mean time." He and his sister then walked out of the large house and to his car. The drive to his sister's friends wasn't long and was filled mainly with music from the radio. "So, who are going?" Adam questioned, his eyes on the road.

"Just some friends." Phoebe knew why Adam was asking but she wasn't going to answer. She wasn't even sure if Adam knew why he was curious.

"Okay." As Adam spoke the simple word he pulled into the McSon's driveway. The McSon twins, Aimee and Jamie, who were fifteen turning sixteen like Phoebe, were at the door the moment Adam stepped out of the car.

"Hi, Adam," they both said with a smile.

"Hi, girls," Adam replied in a dead tone. He always said 'girls' because they argued over what it meant by him greeting one before the other.

"So, Adam, good news," Aimee, or was it Jamie, started as they walked into the house.

"We're transferring to Eden Hall, we'll be with you," the other finished.

"Ah huh." Adam couldn't care less. As much as the Ducks hated it, he wasn't into dating. His fellow teammates always try to talk him into dating but he would just ignore them.

"So, Adam," the first one purred, putting her hand on his bicep. "Have you been working out?"

"I play hockey, of course I have." Adam looked around the living room for Phoebe. Not finding her, he presumed she had disappeared with Aimee to find her shirt. That meant he was dealing with Jamie.

"I know. I love watching you play. When I'm at Eden Hall, can I be your cheerleader?" Jamie cooed, her hand still on his arm.

Adam looked down at the girl. She and her sister looked exactly the same. They both had strawberry-blonde hair that was thick and very wavy; they both had brown eyes that were flecked with blue and grey. Their skin was flawless, their body's well shaped and their chest was far from small. They would be any boy's favorite dream, but not Adam's. To Adam, their hair was to light in colour, their skin was too soft and unharmed and their brown eyes were the wrong shade. Not to mention they were to short, standing just under average. Adam knew his ideal girl, and they weren't it.

"There are cheerleaders at the school. You could always try to join the team," Adam told her, rolling his shoulder to get her to let go.

"Yeah, but I'd be your own personal cheerleader." Jamie tried to move close to him, but Adam tensed and stood still. He gave off an air that he didn't want her near him. She didn't take the hint though and tried to cuddle into him.

Adam cringed and scrunched up his nose. Jamie must have been wearing strong perfume. It stunk. It smelt like a musty room mixed with fabric softener. He was really uncomfortable and the smells were making him feel sick.

Phoebe and Aimee came back with Phoebe's shirt. When his sister looked at him, he pulled a face, letting her know he wasn't happy. Phoebe stifled a giggle before hugging Aimee. "Thanks, Aimee. To bad you can't come bowling." Phoebe then walked over to Jamie and pulled her away from Adam. Giving the other sister a hug, Phoebe said her goodbyes, "Bye Jamie, bye Aimee."

Adam sighed with relief as they headed out of the rich house.

"Bye, Phoebe," the two said in a normal voice, then in a girly voice, "Bye, Adam."

Adam didn't reply, he simply climbed into his car and drove away with Phoebe.

"Did you have fun?" Phoebe asked cheekily.

Adam growled, "No. Your friends are annoying. That's the last time I do you a favor."

"It's not my fault they threw themselves at you. They like you," Phoebe protested.

"Well I don't like them," Adam told her, turning up the radio.

When Adam left with Phoebe, the team got bored quickly. Therefore, they were happy when Maria handed them an album. On opening the album, the team discovered it was photo's from before Adam became a Duck.

"Who's that?" Russ Tyler pointed at a girl with her arms around a blonde. Both girls were about six and were hugging each other and smiling. The blonde was clearly a Banks, though which Banks sister out of three, they didn't know. The other girl had thick brown hair that had a slight curl to the bottom. Her eyes were also brown and her smile didn't reach them.

"Oh," Maria exclaimed, fixing her make-up in the living room mirror. "That's Phoebe and her friend, Essi."

"Okay," Russ turned the page and saw a picture of Adam and a fellow Hawks player. This player also had brown hair and brown eyes like the girl. But there was cockiness to his eyes, where the girls had been empty.

"McGill," Maria and Charlie growled.

"Who?" Dean Portman asked, arching his brow as Maria walked out of the room.

"The dick that almost broke Adam's neck back in peewee," Fulton explained. "He was a right asshole." They turned the page again. There were pictures of Phoebe and Essi, Adam and McGill and a blank spot. "What was there?"

Maria walked back in, halfway through pulling up her hair. She looked at the page and the blank spot. "I think, not sure though, that it was a picture of Adam and Essi. Cute photo."

"Where's it gone then?" Dwayne asked in his Texas accent.

Maria shrugged. "Phoebe could have taken it. She always liked it. Adam could have taken it because he liked it or hated it. Mum could have put it somewhere. Dad could have burnt it. The list is endless."

"Ummmm, why would your dad want to burn it?" Julie looked down at the blank spot.

Maria laughed at the team's confusion. "Because Jason, Kelly and I used to tell dad that Adam and Essi were in love and they were going to get married. Dad believed us because he was never around to see them fight. Dad didn't want Adam to have a photo of him and Essi for that fact. He didn't want he's son fraternizing with Essi after what happened in the last game against the Hawks. She has ties to the Hawks.

"Your dad's weird," Julie concluded.

"Ah huh," a voice agreed. The body connected to the voice walked in, revealing Adam. "What are we talking about?"

"The photo of you and Essi is missing," Maria informed her younger brother by two years. She had just finished pulling up her long hair, now she was standing there with her arms folded.

"What a shame," Adam replied sarcastically, dropping himself into a chair. "I haven't even seen her in about seven years this year. The Hawks game if memory serves."

"Hey Phoebe, Kristy's out," Maria told her sister. "How about we invite the Ducks?"

"Fine with me," Phoebe said back, before turning to the Ducks. "Want to come bowling? You can call Tammy, Jesse and Terry and invite them." The Ducks, who had nothing better to do, agreed.

Around twenty minutes later the Ducks and the two Banks girls were in two separate cars, driving to the bowling ally. Adam was driving the smaller car and Maria was driving the larger. Phoebe was in her blue shirt and chatting with Connie and Julie.

"You're gonna love my friend," she told them.

"I thought all your friends backed out," Goldberg stated from the seat next to Adam.

"No. Aimee, Jamie and Maria's friend Kristy backed out. There was six of us going and as far as I know my last friend still is," Phoebe corrected him. She then looked at the back of Adam's head. "I bet you're glad Aimee and Jamie aren't coming."

"If they were, I wouldn't be," Adam told her bitterly.

"Why not?" Connie asked, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder.

"Because, Aimee and Jamie practically threw themselves at him." Phoebe smiled when she saw Adam's shoulders tense.

"Really?" Connie and Julie asked slyly.

"Yep, I heard something about Jamie wanting to be Adams _personal cheerleader," Phoebe announced._

"_Going off Cake-eater. Two girls." Goldberg clapped a hand on Adam's shoulder._

"_Not interested," Adam growled._

_Goldberg quirked an eyebrow before turning in his seat to look at Phoebe. "What do they look like?"_

"Petite, strawberry-blonde hair, fair complexion, pretty; their twins," Phoebe described.

"Banksie, are you gay?" Goldberg asked.

"No," Adam hissed, quickly losing his temper. "I'm just not interested in them."

Goldberg sighed but Adam was saved from hearing a reply. They had just pulled up in the bowling ally's parking lot beside their fellow Duck's that were meeting them there.

The group climbed out of the car and greeted their friends and as rest got out of the nine-seater Maria was driving.

"Where is this friend of yours?" Julie asked Phoebe.

Phoebe and Maria merely headed towards the building instead of replying. As they drew closer, they noticed a girl sitting on the steps, hunched over a book. Adam stopped dead. The girl was a contrast to the Banks girls. Phoebe and Maria had straight, bleach blonde hair to the girl's mahogany brown that had a slight curl at the end. The Banks girls had light blue, expressive eyes to the girl's plain brown, emotionless eyes. Phoebe and Maria were skinny, had lack of curves and small chests. The girl, whilst skinny, had curves, a developed chest and, for a rebellious feel, a navel piercing. The only thing the same was the height. The Banks girls and this brunette were all tall, standing around 5'9. The girl was wearing a loose fitting; dark pants that sat on her hips comfortably and a white tank-top that didn't reach her navel.

Phoebe noticed the Ducks looked at Adam to see if he would tell them who she was; Phoebe took this chance to see Adam's reaction. He stood there looking like he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Esmeralda." Phoebe smiled.


	2. Strikes and Job Options

_**I do not own the Ducks, sorry for any mistakes, reviews are lovely. **_

_**awtr101fan- As you requested, a new chapter. Thank you for the review and I'm glad you liked Adam's reaction to seeing Esmeralda. I think the Ducks are a bit slow and haven't picked up on who she is. But then again, never have my readers. There's a twist to her.**_

The girl looked up, revealing a faded blue bruise on her cheek bone. On seeing this, Adam winced and looked away, much to the team's confusion.

"Hey, Phoeb's, Mar," Esmeralda said, getting up and closing her book.

"You take a book everywhere you go, don't you Essi?" Phoebe joked as her friend put her book in her handbag.

The Duck's jaws dropped as Esmeralda gave a wry smile. The whole team looked at Adam to find he was still shocked, but for a different reason. He was looking Esmeralda up and down like he had never seen a girl in his life. Swallowing the obvious lump in his throat, Adam addressed her, "hey, what's up McGill?"

Esmeralda McGill looked at Adam with wide eyes. Sweeping her gaze over his appearance once, Esmeralda replied, "look up and find out yourself, Banks." She then turned and entered the building with Phoebe and Maria. Adam went to follow but he was stopped by his team.

"Essi?" Goldberg said. "There's photo's of you and McGill's… McGill's…"

"Sister," Adam told him.

"Sister! Why are there photos of you and McGill's sister?" Averman asked.

"Because I was friends with David and Phoebe's friends with McGill so we spent a lot of time together." Adam sighed in frustration. "Look, I haven't seen her since just after the Hawk's against Duck's match."

Dean looked at Adam suspiciously. "Dude, have you kissed her?" he asked randomly.

"Yeah, once…wait, no, twice. It was like a deal thing with David." Adam thought back.

"What kind of deal?" Luis asked.

"I had the flu one game when we were eight. When I was better, David decided to make me a deal so I wouldn't play badly again. 'If I play better then you, then you have to kiss my sister'." Adam quoted his old friend.

"And you played badly?" Russ looked shocked. Adam was the best player on the team after all.

"Yeah, I was still a bit sick, I guess. McGill was pretty shocked when I kissed her." Adam headed up the steps as they talked.

On entering they found all three girls over at the registering counter, waiting for them. Phoebe was standing with her back against the counter, Maria was standing to the side of her and Esmeralda was standing, facing the counter with her crossed forearms resting on it. Phoebe was the first to notice them. She smiled but continued her chat instead of alerting the two other girls.

Adam had a sudden strike of bravery as he noticed that Esmeralda's body was leaning out from the counter, seeing as her folded forearms were the only thing on the counter. He walked up behind her, knowing everyone but Esmeralda was watching him. He slid his arms around her waist, feeling her shiver as his skin connected with hers. Once she had straightened up in shock, Adam picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

"Banks, put me down," she ordered, placing her hands on his shoulder so she could prop herself up as much as possible.

"Ummm, no," Adam retorted, pretending to consider it.

Phoebe and Maria laughed as everyone else watched on in confusion. "I remember when you did this year's ago," Phoebe giggled.

Esmeralda smacked Adam's head. "I remember that too! I was in a nightgown."

"Like I cared, I was seven," Adam protested.

"Put me down or I'll tell your friends embarrassing secrets," Esmeralda threatened. "Ow, gently," she added after Adam dropped her unceremoniously to the ground.

"You should have added that into your threat," Adam told her, a cheeky twinkle to his eyes. "Speaking of my friends, I'll introduce you." Esmeralda grabbed the hand Dwayne offered her as Adam introduced them all.

"Sooo," Averman said, putting his arm over Esmeralda's shoulder. "Do you play hockey?"

Averman's attempts to flirt were lost on her. "Nope," she answered, popping her p as she grabbed her bowling shoes and walked off.

"Oh, Averman strikes out!" Kenny boasted. After almost three years of practice, Russ' teaching had finally sunk in and Ken knew how to smack talk.

Phoebe giggled as she grabbed her shoes and headed over to Esmeralda, Adam, Charlie, Jesse and Terry, who were all picking out bowling balls. "She doesn't date," Phoebe explained to the crestfallen boy.

"What? Like Cake-eater doesn't?" Fulton asked her.

"Yep, they both don't date. I'm not sure why Essi doesn't, probably her family, but I know why Adam doesn't." Phoebe smiled at them, telling them that she was keeping quiet about the reason.

"McGill, that ball is too heavy for you," Adam stated as they drew near.

"I know," Esmeralda admitted as she picked up a pink bowling ball. "It's for you. It matches your eyes."

"Of course, cause my eyes are pink," Adam spat sarcastically as he put down the ball Esmeralda forced into his hands.

"No, there storm blue, but they go nicely with pink." Esmeralda didn't even look up to find out Adam's eye color. She was busy picking up another heavy ball. This one: light blue.

"That one's even heavier," Adam pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's pretty," Esmeralda stated.

With a sigh, Adam grabbed the light blue ball that was next to him and walked over to Esmeralda. He then grabbed the balls heavier double out of the girl's arms before thrusting the lighter one into them.

Esmeralda gave a start of surprise before walking off to a bowling ally. Adam shook his head and swopped the light blue ball for a dark green before following her.

When everyone was down at the ally's with a ball and a change of shoes, they split into teams. Tammy, Fulton, Dean, Ken, Luis and Jesse played in one ally. Adam, Esmeralda, Phoebe, Charlie, Julie and, Connie in another. Maria, Guy, Goldberg, Averman, Russ, Dwayne and Terry in the next one.

"So, Tammy," Fulton started awkwardly, "Where's Tommy?"

"Back home. He wanted to spend the holidays with his girlfriend instead of coming back here to see the Ducks." Tammy decided to play with her nails instead of look at Fulton.

"Oh…uh…at least you came down. Your more fun, I mean, I like seeing your brother but…"

"Thanks," Tammy said, cutting off Fulton's rambling.

"Let me guess!" Esmeralda whispered to Phoebe. "He likes her, she likes him, but neither is willing to say?"

"Sounds about right," Phoebe whispered back, watching Fulton's and Tammy's failure called flirting. "So, how are you?" When Phoebe asked the question she saw Adam halt slightly as he did up his shoe.

"I'm good, but you saw me a week ago and you talked to me last night. You should now I'm good." Esmeralda dismissed.

"Yeah, but you didn't have that last week." Phoebe nodded towards the bruise on her friend's cheek.

"It's nothing, you know how klutzy I am," Esmeralda explained vaguely, with a forced giggle.

Adam finished tying his shoe and looked up. Pain flashed through his eyes when he looked into Esmeralda's broken ones. No one noticed the hurt besides Phoebe, Connie and Julie. It was quickly gone however as he walked closer to Esmeralda and Phoebe. "Understandable, it's not like that crap you call a sport teaches you balance and stamina," he jabbed.

"What?!" Esmeralda reared up. "Dancing is a sport and it teaches you great balance and stamina. Not to mention it gives practically all your muscles a work out." Her eyes no longer looked broken. They had an odd light to them. They were full of emotion and were quickly changing to a different shade of brown.

"Yeah right, how is prancing around a sport?" Adam asked, encouraging the argument that was forming.

"We don't prance around. You have to have muscles and balance to hold yourself up in an attitude. Mr. Hockey-Puck, the most you do is skate and hit a little black thing. Oh, and each other," Esmeralda retorted.

Connie, Julie, Phoebe and Maria knew Adam was biting back a smile. He got the reaction he wanted. "There's more to hockey than skating and hitting things. There's offensive and defensive," Adam replied. "Quiet frankly, I don't believe dancing is a sport because there's no tactics and I really only acknowledge team sports anyway."

"Team…? Synchronized dancing. A massive group dancing together, some times doing the same thing, sometimes not." Esmeralda fired. "And I remember you playing hockey by yourself so obviously it's not a complete team sport."

Before Adam could reply, Charlie tapped Esmeralda on the shoulder to alert her that it was her turn to bowl. She took the opportunity and walked off; bowling a strike with the ball Adam had given her.

Charlie looked at his friend who raised a questioning eyebrow. "Don't you raise your eyebrow at me! What was that about?"

Adam shrugged as Phoebe took her turn. "I got her mind off other, unpleasant, things."

"What unpleasant things?" Charlie whispered as Esmeralda and Phoebe came closer. Adam merely shook his head as he took his turn and watched Esmeralda out of the corner of his eye.

Everyone had almost finished their first game. On lane five, Dean was first with Luis at a close second after their last bowl. On lane six, Adam and Esmeralda were tied with their last bowl to go, which was three if played right. And in lane seven, Averman was first and Goldberg was second after their last bowls.

"Loser buys winner food," Esmeralda said as she picked up her bowl.

"You're on," Adam replied as he watched her. Esmeralda bowled and got a nine, spare and strike, tallying her score at one hundred and ninety-nine. Adam bowled after Phoebe and got a strike, nine and a miss, making it one hundred and ninety-eight.

"So close but so far," Esmeralda jibed.

"Yeah, yeah, anyone want anything while I'm up there?" Adam asked, nodding at the food court of such on the other side of the building.

"Yeah, but I'll come with." Julie got up and grabbed her wallet as she headed up with Adam. She wanted to know what was up with him. He had argued with Esmeralda three times now but they obviously saw each other as at least friends. However, Julies plan fell through.

"Me too. You don't know what I want," Esmeralda stated, running after them.

"If you haven't changed then you want a hotdog with the works or a chilidog," Adam told her. He dug his hands into his front pockets as he smiled sideways at her.

Esmeralda looked at him with shock and surprise. "You remember?"

Adam laughed. "Yeah, you dropped a hotdog down my shirt because I annoyed you one day. How could I forget?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. God, David was pissed at me for it. But hey, you really annoyed me that day." Esmeralda reached out her arm behind Adam. At first, Julie thought Esmeralda was going to put her arm around Adams waist but then Esmeralda dug her hand into Adams back pocket. Adam didn't even give a start of surprise; he just drew a raspy breath and let Esmeralda steal his wallet. The girl opened Adams wallet and looked through his photos. "Kelly's twenty-three isn't she? And Jason's almost twenty-one?"

"Yeah and Maria is nineteen, I'm seventeen and Phoebe's almost sixteen," Adam finished off aging all the Banks kids.

Esmeralda backhanded Adams shoulder. "I know Maria's, yours and Phoebe's age, Silly. I even know your birthday, 9th of June."

"19th of July," Adam replied.

Julie gave him a curious look before Esmeralda clarified. "19th of July is mine."

"Oh, yeah, I was just thinking you got it right," Julie explained.

"She's also sixteen," Adam added, giving Esmeralda a playful shove before taking back his wallet.

They reached the food court and Adam ordered himself and Esmeralda a hotdog and a frozen raspberry. Esmeralda then headed to the bathroom as Julie ordered what she wanted. Julie looked over to Adam when Esmeralda disappeared to see him writing some thing on a napkin. Just as Julie moved to see what it was, Adam finished writing and folded the napkin.

"I'll be back, if the food comes, can you mind it?" Adam asked. The moment Julie nodded; he walked off, turning a corner and heading to the bathroom.

Adam walked around the corner and headed over to Esmeralda who had just came out of the bathroom. "McGill," Adam said, alerting Esmeralda to his presents.

"Banks," Esmeralda replied, stopping in front of him.

"Here." Adam held out the folded napkin. Esmeralda opened it and looked at the writing. "It's my number. Call me if you need anything. Whether it's because you need to rant, talk or because of something at home, call me."

Esmeralda looked from the number to Adam and back before she closed the gap between them and hugged him. Adam was automatically engulfed in Esmeralda's sent. She smelt nothing like Aimee and Jamie. Esmeralda smelt like wild flowers, pine trees and fruit.

Adam buried his nose in her hair. "You still smell the same," he mumbled.

Esmeralda chuckled before replying. "And you still smell the same. Like an ice rink. You always remind me of skating."

"I thought I'd remind you of falling on your ass." Adam laughed, remembering the time Esmeralda had fallen over.

"Shut up!" she demanded, drawing back. "It was one time."

"Yeah, but I remember it," Adam told her. He grabbed her hand and turned, leading her back to the food court.

Julie waited for them. When she saw their joined hands, her eyes widened. They let go of each others hands as they reached the counter.

"Hasn't the food came yet?" Adam asked.

Julie shook her head, still in shock. She had recovered enough, however, to notice Esmeralda pocket a folded napkin.

"Finally," Esmeralda exclaimed when a boy around their age put food in front of them. "Hang on, that's not ours."

"No, it's mine," Julie said, picking up a fries.

"Damn," Esmeralda cursed as her stomach gave a grumble.

"McGill, when was the last time you ate?" Adam asked, leaning his side against the counter.

"I had a piece of toast for breakfast and I skipped lunch." Adam raised an eyebrow at her. "What, I was busy."

Adam seemed to except that and Julie took the chance to get to know Esmeralda. "So, Esmeralda, where do you go to school?"

"Oh, I attend Cutlan Hall with Phoebe. Maria visits often 'cause her college is like one block over. It's kinda like Eden's enemy," Esmeralda told her, pulling her eyes away from Adam.

"Cool, and what do you want to be when you leave?" Julie questioned.

Esmeralda tried to hold back a smile as she slyly looked at Adam. Cheekiness shone in her usually blank eyes. "I want to be a Playboy Bunny."

Adam gave a start. "A WHAT?!?" he yelled in anger.

"A Playboy Bunny," Esmeralda repeated calmly.

Julie recognized an angry Adam. It didn't happen often but when it did, it was pretty scary. The question was why was he so angry?

Adam's and Esmeralda's food arrived at that point and Julie took it as her queue to grab hers and walk off. Adam and Esmeralda followed a bit behind.

"You can't be a Playboy Bunny," Adam growled.

"And why not?" Esmeralda asked, amusement sounding in her voice. "Don't you think I have the body for it?"

"McGill, you are not going to lower yourself to doing that," Adam told her forcefully.

"You can't tell me what to do. And you didn't answer my question."

"Yes, you have the body for it but you're not going to become one!"

Julie sped up and reached the bowling ally's she and her friends were using, although almost everyone was now up at the food court. The moment she got there she went over to Phoebe and Maria. "Okay, I saw Adam and Esmeralda holding hands and before that Adam wrote something on a napkin and gave it to her, now he's telling her she can't be a Playboy Bunny. They can't be dating after hanging out for few hours after not seeing each other for about seven years," Julie rambled.

Phoebe and Maria laughed and looked at the still arguing teenagers. "They're not dating," Phoebe reassured her. "They just have a weird friendship. One minute it seems like they hate each other, next it seems like they are dating. They don't see what matters about them holding hands and getting things out of each others pockets."

"Although, I think, that will get a different reaction out of Adam now-a-days… if it's in his front pocket."

"Maria! Gross!" Phoebe exclaimed as Maria laughed and her brother and best friend drew closer. "I'll never be able to look at them two the same." This made Maria laugh harder.

"McGill, your not going to!" Adam hissed.

"Why not?" Esmeralda asked. Her amusement seemed to have dwindled slightly. Now she was more curious.

"Because you're too good for that career," Adam confessed.

Esmeralda looked at Adam in shock as Phoebe jumped in. "What career?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"Playboy Bunny," Esmeralda answered distractedly. She was still looking at Adam in shock.

"What?!" Adam demanded to know.

"Did you just complement me?" Esmeralda asked.

"I guess." Adam shrugged. "Maybe I'm getting sick."

"Well it's following your pattern. Get sick, hit on Essi." Esmeralda took a bite of her hotdog. "Ow no." she swallowed. "You got me sick, don't you?"

"Are you talking about the kiss?" Julie asked in excitement. She didn't want to sat it was a deal because she didn't want to hurt Esmeralda if she didn't know.

"One of them," Esmeralda confirmed, taking a sip of her drink.

"One of them?" Phoebe repeated in astonishment.

"Yes one of them. We're talking about the deal one," Adam said with a bored expression.

"I remember that one. I was almost as shocked as Essi, but I never heard about the second kiss." Phoebe was looking from one to the other in question. "Well?" she pressed when she got no answer.

"What?! We kissed, who cares?" Esmeralda asked her friend as Adam took that moment to take a rather large bite of his hotdog.

"You two are unbelievable," Phoebe told them. "Why don't you just go make-out?"

"If you insist," Adam retorted around a mouthful of food.

"Swallow first," Esmeralda instructed.

Adam did as he was told before leaning over and whispering in Esmeralda's ear, "I'll give you something to swallow." Thankfully he said it so only Esmeralda heard.

Esmeralda's jaw fell open. She calmly handed Phoebe her drink before turning to Adam and slapping his shoulder.

"I meant the rest of this," Adam falsely defended, holding up his half eaten hotdog.

"No thanks, I have my own. I don't really want your hotdog," Esmeralda said, letting it be taken wrongly.

Phoebe, who had just stolen a sip of Esmeralda's drink, almost spat it out. "Essi, that sounds so corrupt."

"I know but you should have heard what your brother said," Esmeralda confessed.

"I don't think we want to," Maria said, looking slightly disturbed. "Anyway, back to Essi's career choice."

"She. Is. Not. Going. To. Be. A. Play. Boy. Bunny!" Adam said each word strongly and with conviction.

"But you can look at her whenever you get sick." Julie forged innocents as she poked fun at Adam.

"Like I'd look at that stuff, I think it's pathetic. McGill is sweet." At Esmeralda's and Phoebe's raised eyebrows, Adam clarified. "I meant her appearance. She looks too sweet and beautiful to do something so disgusting."

"Finally," Maria practically yelled, slapping her hands down onto her thighs in exasperation. "A nice guy. To bad it's my brother."

Esmeralda and Phoebe giggled and Esmeralda blushed at Adams complement. "Are you telling me you wouldn't be the way you are if you had met a nice guy that wasn't related to you?" Esmeralda asked, smiling widely even though it didn't fully reach her eyes.

Maria thought for a moment. "Nope, I still would be."

"What are you talking about?" Adam asked.

Maria, Phoebe and Esmeralda looked at each other before looking back at Adam. "Never mind," all three said in unison with sweet smiles.

Adam could tell they were hiding something and he didn't like it. Maria and Phoebe never kept something from him unless it was girly stuff he didn't want to hear and even then they sometimes didn't.

"I'll tell you another time, Adam," Maria reassured him, clearly sensing his unease.

"Pop goes the weasel," Phoebe said suddenly before hitting herself on the forehead with the palm of her hand. Both Adam and Esmeralda raised an eyebrow at her while Julie and Maria tried to suppress their laughter. "Kegzy got it stuck in my head!" Esmeralda laughed as she hopped up onto the small wall that separated the bowling ally from the carpeted area. Kegzy was their black haired, blue eyes, best friend Elvin Keg. "Why am I friends with such weird people?" Phoebe asked rhetorically.

Even though it was rhetorical, Esmeralda answered it, "Because you're weird."

"I am not weird," Phoebe defended herself as Esmeralda finished her hotdog and put her drink on the wall next to her.

"Yeah, you are." Adam threw Esmeralda a wink, causing her to smile. "Remember the tissue box?"

Phoebe's eyes widened before she looked at Esmeralda who was almost falling off the wall laughing. "You told him?"

"No…" Esmeralda choked out.

"You did," Adam finished. "I heard you tell her."

"Hmmm," Phoebe said before pointing at Adam. "I'll kill you at home." She then lunged at Esmeralda who jumped off the wall and ran towards the Ducks, who were coming back from the food court. Esmeralda hid behind Dean and Jesse. When Phoebe ran over to the confused group, Esmeralda gave Jesse a slight push, making him step forward and stop in front of Phoebe.

"Hi," he said, baffled.

"Hi," Phoebe replied, slightly out of breath, before chasing Esmeralda back to the ally's.

The group quickened their pace to get back and get an explanation. "What's going on?" Russ asked.

"Well, there was something about a Playboy Bunny and then something about a tissue box," Charlie explained.

"How long have you been there?" Phoebe asked, abandoning her attempts to kill Esmeralda.

"A while," Charlie confessed to them with a smirk. "So explain the tissue box."

"Explain the Playboy Bunny!" Dean said.

"Playboy Bunny was just a joke. Never mind about the tissue box. I was sleep walking," Phoebe dismissed.

"More like sleep talking," Adam corrected.

"And sleep arguing," Esmeralda added.

"And sleep throwing," Adam finished.

"Now you have to explain!" Jesse smiled at Phoebe who blushed in embarrassment.

"Fine! I was asleep and…" Phoebe wouldn't look anyone in the eyes. "My tissue box was arguing with me," she mumbled, "So I threw it out the door. I woke up and it was outside." Everyone lost it. When everyone calmed down, Phoebe turned to Adam and Esmeralda who were standing side by side. "See this is why I hate you two getting along."

"Yeah," Maria agreed. "If you're not embarrassing us, you're telling us disturbing things." Adam and Esmeralda looked confused for a moment before Adam doubled over, laughing and Esmeralda snorted and threw her head back to laugh.

"Oh, yeah," Esmeralda remembered. When everyone but Phoebe and Maria looked bewildered, Esmeralda and Adam explained. "When we were younger, Adam was sleeping over cause he and David had an early practice. Some of my dad's mates came over with their kids…"

Adam picked it up. "The girl was about fourteen and the boy was about ten-thirteen. I was nine and McGill was eight. The girl looked a bit like McGill does now." Adam swept his eyes over Esmeralda to make sure his assumption was correct. "The boy… well he was…"

"Ugly!" Esmeralda said. "He was huge! He had stretch-marks, his stomach hung over his pants. Thank god he was wearing a t-shirt most of the time. And he was mean like my brother."

"Anyway, after a while McGill and I noticed something…"

"David was paying a fair amount of attention to one of them…"

"I'll give you a hint. It wasn't the good looking girl." Everyone looked stunned. "Yeah, I didn't sleep over after that."

"Don't know why you didn't," Esmeralda said to Adam. "You're obviously not his type. You're to fit."

After it had sunk into the Ducks head as to what was said, everyone became disgusted in David's taste of boys and changed the subject as they went back to bowling.

_**Thank you for reading. Some of the words that look like their spelt wrong might just be the Australian spelling. The tissue box is for my wacky and beautiful friend Laura. Review please my lovely and gorgeous fans.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	3. Returning Home

_**I do not own the Ducks, sorry for mistakes, reviews are lovely.**_

_**awtr101fan- Thank you for another lovely review. I'm glad you liked the banter between Essi and Adam. I'll admit I have a bit of a dirty mind and it shows in this. There will be more of them two together. Not to mention there will be flashbacks to their past. The bruise will be answered in this chapter so you don't have to wonder anymore.**_

At the end of the night Esmeralda was pretty happy. She liked Julie, Connie and Tammy; they were fun and had a descent sense of humor. And getting to see Adam again! She had watched him on the Banks T.V. when he was at the Junior Goodwill Games, and she listened to his games on the radio but it wasn't the same thing. To be in the same room with him, to talk to him, to argue with him, it was… different.

She had been so sure she would never see him again unless it was a fleeting moment or a Banks wedding, but only one of his siblings. That's why she had done what she did at their last meeting. If she had known he would come back into her life and no longer look like a little boy but… well him, she wouldn't have done it.

The knot in her stomach tightened at that thought. Ignoring it, Esmeralda looked around the bowling ally. She snorted when she saw Tristan Riley looking at Phoebe. He had liked Phoebe ever since he had been forced to attend Cutlan, but Phoebe hated him. The moment he had appeared at the bowling ally Maria and Esmeralda had teased Phoebe, thus letting the Ducks know about the one-way crush.

"Hey, Girly," Maria said, sitting beside Esmeralda with a smile on her face. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, hang on." Esmeralda slipped on her sandals, grabbed her handbag and headed over to the counter with Maria to return their shoes.

When she went to head out the door however, Phoebe stopped her. "Clothes."

Looking down at her clothing, Esmeralda gasped and headed to the bathroom. She changed out of her loose pants and mid-drift tank-top and put on a simple blue dress that she had stowed away in her handbag. God those things could hold a lot. She then put away her old clothes and took out a compact, fixing her make-up so it suited her outfit.

Putting it back in her handbag and checking herself in the mirror, Esmeralda left the bathroom and returned to her baffled friends. They gave her new outfit a questioning look before Adam uttered an oh-so familiar phrase.

"Welcome to the life of the rich and shameless."

"My dad and David would go bonkers if they knew I was at a bowling ally having fun," Esmeralda explained, running her fingers through her hair. "So, I've been at the library." Everyone accepted her reasoning and left the building.

Her friends that were getting a ride with Maria and Adam decided to wait till their friends getting a ride from their parents were picked up. Esmeralda, however, was taking the bus so she couldn't wait. Giving Phoebe and Maria a hug, and a goodbye to everyone else, Esmeralda ran off to catch her bus. Once she was on it, she chose an empty seat at the back and took her book out.

It only took twenty minutes for the bus to get to her stop and when she got off she dreaded every step she took closer to the place she was supposed to call home. Entering the large mansion like house, Esmeralda tried to be quiet, not wishing to alert her brother or father. Lifting her eyes off the ground for a moment, Esmeralda looked at the foyer and had a flash of a haunting memory. Her hate of this house had tripled that day, at the very least.

Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Esmeralda dropped her gaze. She wasn't allowed to look males in the eyes. She was to beneath them. It had taken her a year to look Adam in the eye, and it was only after he had proven he wouldn't hurt her. After that day, storm blue had become her favorite color.

"Brat," a male voice called from the sitting room to her right. Everything in that room was old fashioned. Whether it was the glass table, with the lion paw legs or the china cabinet with wood inlay. It was all expensive and intimidating to visitors.

Turning to that room, Esmeralda put her toes at the threshold. Keeping her eyes downcast and her hands clasped in front of her. "Yes, Sir?" she asked the man with mud brown hair.

"Where have you been?" Mr. McGill spat at his only daughter as he twirled his scotch on the rocks.

"At the library, Sir, I have an assessment due and I did not wish to disgrace you with a poor mark." Esmeralda heard the footfalls that were her brothers.

"What do you think, David, my boy?" her father asked her brother as he sipped his drink. David walked up behind her and gave her a push, making her step into the room. She prayed her shoes weren't dirty even a little.

David came over to her and put his thumb underneath her chin and put his index in front of her chin. He did this to control the direction of her face. When he forced her to look up, Esmeralda diverted her eyes, looking at the ceiling corner. He moved her head in different angles. Next minute, his small grip tightened and he pushed her back by only his two fingers. "You've been with Adam Banks," David spat. "I can tell." It probably didn't help the fact that she breathed in deep at Adam's name.

"I haven't," Esmeralda protested anyway.

"Liar, stay the fuck away from that traitor," David ordered. Anger welled in Esmeralda and she did something she had never done. She looked her brother in the eyes. She was pleased to see that she and he did not have the same color brown. He's were blue/brown. But that happy emotion didn't last long. The anger was taking over again. Before she could act on it however, she felt pain shoot through the side of her face as David back-handed her. She stumbled and fell. She registered more pain when her head hit the corner of the oak half table against the wall. After that, everything went black.

Adam couldn't believe it. He had thought he'd never see her again. Esmeralda McGill! Not a day had gone by without him at least thinking her name. Seeing her again was different. She was different. He had seen girls before but Esmeralda was the first girl he had ever noticed. Before that girls were girls. Back then Esmeralda had been wow but now she was… WOW!

That's the only way he knew how to explain it. He didn't just mean her appearance but her personality. She was strong willed and held her morals high but she was also secretive. She hid the true Esmeralda when ever she was around her brother and father. She even hid herself around others. She was also opinionated, frustrating, scared. The list was endless, well to him anyway. Adam wasn't sure but he might be the only person besides Esmeralda's mother to see her cry. Crying was forbidden in her house and to do it in front of someone, a male no less, was unheard of.

Sighing, Adam opened the second draw on his nightstand and lifted up the false bottom. Putting his hand in the draw, Adam felt what he wanted. Taking it out, he smiled and looked at the photograph.

Esmeralda woke up as she felt something collide painfully with her shoulder blade. Groaning, she turned to lie on her back and open her eyes. The moment she did, the pain in her head increased dramatically. Before her eyes had a chance to focus, pain shot through her side as the same thing to hit her shoulder blade, hit her ribs.

When her eyes did focus and she pushed back the tears, Esmeralda saw her brother standing over her, looking pissed. He had obviously kicked her… hard!

"Ah, look, the whores awake," David bit. He crouched down and grabbed the back of her head, pulling her hair as he made her stand up. "You won't see the light of day for the rest of the summer for what you did. How dare you look me in the eyes? You're beneath me." David dragged her out of the sitting room and across the foyer. He pulled her up the stairs, leading her forcefully to her room. "You will stay the hell away from Adam Banks, do you hear me? I don't want you talking to him, seeing him or even thinking about him. I know why he played badly in that game. He tainted you. Father and I can't even pay a man to take you off our hands now. Who would want a girl that kissed a traitor and liked it? Oh yes, I know, I saw you fucking kiss him back. I expected you to be disgusted but no! You're too much of a slut." All David's questions were obviously rhetorical because he didn't wait for an answer. They got to the door that hid the staircase to the attic. David threw it open and pulled Esmeralda up them. Getting to the top of the stairs, David threw open the other door and pushed Esmeralda in, letting go of her hair roughly.

The door was slammed shut before Esmeralda had even hit the ground. When she did, her head throbbed and her stomach churned. Pulling herself up off the ground, she ran to her bathroom and over to the toilet. She brought up the contents of her stomach as her ribs pounded in pain because of the muscles near them being strained.

Washing her mouth out when she was done, Esmeralda walked back into her room, thanking God that her brother and father didn't want her to 'dirty their bathrooms' with her presence, unless she was cleaning it of course. As she swayed on the spot because of her concussion, Esmeralda heard a thud of something hitting the door. Cautiously walking over and opening the door, Esmeralda saw her handbag about three steps down from it. Her brother had thrown it at the door. Quickly, Esmeralda retrieved it and brought it into her room. Going through it, she found everything still there. She knew David had gone through it though and she was probably in worse trouble because of the clothing. With a small smile, Esmeralda put her hand down the top of her dress and pulled her phone out of her bra, along with the napkin Adam had wrote his number on. She had felt odd putting something Adam had touched and written on in her bra but now she was glad she had. Otherwise she would have had it taken off her.

She knew that people with concussions shouldn't sleep because there was a chance they wouldn't wake up, but she didn't care. She viewed death as a blessing right about know. At that thought, something, or more someone, popped into her head. Dying would mean never seeing Adam again, but then again, it was probably safer.

As much as she wanted to see him again, she knew it would raise a lot of problems. David had been telling the truth when he said she kissed him back.

"_What was with your brother in today's match?" Esmeralda asked as she and Phoebe played a clapping game together._

"_I don't know, he played the last match badly but he was half dead with the flu," Phoebe answered. The two seven-year-olds were sitting in the empty stands near the rink their brothers had played on and were waiting for their brothers to get out of the changing room._

"_Maybe he's still sick," Esmeralda suggested. "Although, that wouldn't explain why my brother looked so happy when Banks started play poorly."_

"_He looked pissed after he saw Adam look at you though," Phoebe pointed out. She had seen her brother take off his helmet after their win and look directly at Esmeralda. His face was blank besides for a small blush but Phoebe knew her brother and saw something in his eyes that said there was a reason why he was looking at Esmeralda._

_Just then the boys came out of the changing room and walked towards the girls. The girls halted their game and stood up._

"_That was sad, I mean disgraceful," David was saying to Adam as the latter boy just looked at the ground. "I wouldn't even show my face next match if I was you."_

"_Shut up, David. My brother is ten times better then you. So what, his still sick, he still got a lot of goals," Phoebe defended her brother. "Oh, Essi, don't forget you and your mom are invited to the lunch at our house on Saturday."_

"_You are?" David spat. "Why wasn't I invited?"_

"_Because it's one of our dad's get-together's. He told me and mom we could invite people to hang out with, so we did." Phoebe rolled her eyes as Esmeralda looked at her feet and tried to suppress a smile. Adam kept shooting her looks before blushing and looking at the ground. Something was up._

"_Why didn't you invite me?" David directed at Adam._

"_Because I'm playing Meet-and-Greet," Adam replied, looking David straight in the eyes._

"_What ever, hurry up, I want to go." This statement from David confused the girls but before they could question it, Adam took a deep breath and sighed. _

_Stepping towards Esmeralda, Adam lifted her head, making her look at the ice rink instead of his eyes. She may look him in the eyes on regular basis's but not around her brother. She darted her eyes to Adams lips to see him give a half smile before leaning forward. He cupped her cheek and pressed his lips to hers, holding them there long enough for Esmeralda to get out of her shock and respond. _

_When he drew back, Esmeralda put her fingers to her lips and looked Adam in the eyes. He licked his lips and smiled before turning red. "Umm, Phoebe, I think we should get going know. Mum and dad are probably waiting for us."_

"_Ar, okay," Phoebe said, looking between Esmeralda and Adam with a perplexed look on her face. "Only if you explain that to me."_

_Adam nodded and he and his sister walked off, Phoebe looking over her shoulder at Esmeralda as she did. _

_Esmeralda removed her fingers from her lips as she looked at the ground in confusion. She only half registered David walking off and her following, her mind was still on the kiss, forever implanted into her memory. Later on David had told Esmeralda why Adam had done it. He had hoped it would hurt Esmeralda to be used as a punishment to Adam but it didn't. Something told her that he didn't see it as a punishment; whether it was the way he blushed or the fact that he licked his lips that had her taste on them. Either way, neither of them saw it as a punishment._

Esmeralda sighed as her eyelids drooped with sleepiness. She scrambled over to her bed, her shoulders slumped. She was thankful her mom's mom was so nice and insisted on buying her a queen bed for her sixteenth. Her brother and father had said she would only use it for one thing and that wasn't sleeping but her Gran trusted her.

With one last thought at the memorable kiss, or at least one of them, Esmeralda smiled, thought about what a great kisser Adam was, and fell asleep. Still in the storm blue dress, her favorite colour.

_**Thank you for reading. I changed the age Adam was when they kissed in the second chapter. I just liked the idea of Essi being seven instead of six. It just fitted better.**_

_**You see that green button. Be nice and click it! …o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	4. No Phone Call

_**I do not own the Ducks, I own any random thing I make up, thank you for reading and reviews are lovely.**_

_**I don't know if you have 'credit' in America but it's basically the money that makes your mobile work. *Can't think of any other way to explain it.***_

_**Thanks for the reviews.**_

Phoebe was pacing back and forth as Maria tried to calm her. She had been worried for two days now. Esmeralda always rang when she got home and up to her room. She rang to let Phoebe know she didn't get caught, but she hadn't rang. Phoebe hadn't heard from Esmeralda in two days and she was starting to panic.

"Phoebe, I'm sure she's fine. She might just have no credit," Maria said to her little sister.

"No, she had just bought more credit. She had worked twenty-two hours this week. She bought some clothes and credit." Phoebe was starting to sound hysterical as she turned to do another lap of her bedroom. "Something has happened. I know something has. She always finds a way of contacting me and letting me know she's alright. She didn't this time!"

Sighing, Maria walked over to Phoebe's door and opened it. Sticking her head out, Maria called down the hall. "Adam, Charlie, can you come in here, please?"

It didn't take the boys long to walk from Adam's room to Phoebe's. "Maria, what's wrong?" Charlie asked.

"It's Essi…"

"What?! What's wrong?" Adam interrogated forcefully.

"She hasn't called or text Pheob's in two days. Not since the bowling ally. She always lets us know she didn't get caught, and she hasn't," Maria explained in as calm a voice as she could manage. "You used to be able to sneak into her house. Do it again!"

"You used to sneak into the McGill house?" Charlie raised an eyebrow at Adam. "You were friends with McGill, the male one, why did you have to sneak in?"

"Phoebe would freak if she didn't see or hear from McGill in a couple of days and then I'd have to sneak in to check on her," Adam explained. "Phoebe, I'll do it. Come on, I'll sneak McGill out, you can wait in the car."

"I'm coming too," Maria said.

"Same," Charlie told them.

All four of them got into the car Adam's parents bought for his sixteenth. They drove the few blocks to the McGill house and parked two houses up and on the other side of the street. Turning off the engine, Adam looked at his little sister in the back seat as his friend in the front seat looked up at the house in awe. "I'll get in, get her and get out. Is her room still the attic?"

Phoebe nodded and Adam undid his seatbelt, getting out of the car. Adam warily walked across the road and over two houses. He walked down the clean ally next to the McGill house and jumped over the high stone fence. _God, that's a lot easier now that I'm taller._ Adam thought as he crept along the yard. The teenager snuck up to the side wall and climbed up the vine that went up the house. He reached where the wall stopped and the roof started and then he carefully hoisted himself onto it. Walking up the sloped roof, he was wary of loose tiles. He hadn't done this in years and he was worried something had changed. He worried for no reason, however, since he reached Esmeralda's window/skylight safely. Opening it quietly, Adam lowered himself down before dropping the short distance. Once again, he thanked his chance in height. Before, it had been a large drop but now it wasn't. He didn't even need a chair to reach the window and close it.

When he had closer the window, Adam looked around. Esmeralda wasn't in her room but it hadn't changed much since the last time he was in it. Her walls were still the color of the wood that makes up the walls, she still had floorboards instead of carpet and her window still had no curtains because it sloped. The draws of her dresser were even open like they used to, with clothes hanging out of them an all. He could see into her top draw clearly. It was one of the biggest changes. It had bras in it! And…and panties!

Pulling his eyes away, they landed on Esmeralda's queen sized bed. It was still a mess, making Adam think of all the wrong things. "Oh, God! This is torture!"

Adam walked out of the room quickly before he got any more thoughts. He walked down the stairs quietly and opened the door curiously, looking around the hall outside before walking out. He walked all the way down to the first level without finding anyone. Adam strained his ears to hear any noise but all he could hear was a funny noise coming from the kitchen. Heedfully, Adam walked towards the kitchen. Stopping at the threshold, Adam looked into the room.

It was spotless and at the sink, running water was Esmeralda, doing nothing to help Adam's imagination. She was wearing short, grey, sport pants and a tight, red tank-top. She was humming to a song that was playing softly from the little radio. When she started to sway her hips a bit, Adam had to stop her.

"Mc…McGill," Adam strained to get out. Esmeralda gasped and turned slightly, looking over her shoulder. Even though her long hair was obscuring her face, Adam could see. "Oh, Es…McGill. Why didn't you call me?" Adam moved forward and turned her around. He pushed back her hair and cupped her cheek. Her eyebrow was cut, her eye was blacky/blue and her lip was split. "Where are they?" he growled.

"They're not here. Why do you think I'm wearing this? They'd call me a slut and a whore if they saw." Esmeralda dropped her head before turning back to the washing up.

"I'll be right back, okay?" Adam saw Esmeralda nod before he headed into the foyer. He undid the three bolt locks before opening the front door and walking out to the iron bar fence. He gestured to Maria, Phoebe and Charlie to come in before walking back inside and pressing the button to open the gate. Once he saw them heading to the gate, he headed back into the kitchen. Maria, Phoebe and Charlie walked in moments after him, seeing as they ran up the drive.

The moment they were all in the kitchen, Adam walked over to Esmeralda and took the plate and sponge right out of her hands. "I'll do that," Adam told her, making her move away.

Esmeralda ducked her head, making her hair cover her face as she moved away from the sink and over to one of the stools near the island in the middle of the room. "Thank you."

"Esmeralda, show me your face," Phoebe demanded, using Esmeralda's full name to stop all casual manner.

"It's nothing," Esmeralda protested.

"What's wrong with her face?" Charlie asked in confusion.

Maria blatantly ignored him. "Esmeralda, show us."

"No," Esmeralda said, getting up and turning her back to them.

Adam sighed and put the cup he was cleaning back in the sink before drying his hands and walking over to Esmeralda. He put his hands on Esmeralda's shoulders and looked her in the eyes with a similar look in them as the day she had first looked into them. "Please, just show them."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes before turning to the small group of three. They all gasped at the sight and Charlie looked horrified.

"Who did that?" he asked, pointing at her face with a shaky finger.

"My father and brother," Esmeralda confessed. She dropped her eyes sadly as Adam went back to washing up. "Banks, I should be doing that!"

"No!" Adam said shortly. "Now, why did they do that? What was their twisted reasoning?"

"They didn't have one. They just felt like it," Esmeralda answered to quickly.

Adam dropped the washing back in the sink with a loud clutter. His shoulders tensed and he gripped the bench. "It was me, wasn't it?" he growled out.

"No, Banks, why would it be you?" Esmeralda's voice sounded forced and tearstained.

Phoebe and Maria grabbed Charlie's wrists and dragged him out of the room as Adam spun around. He walked up to Esmeralda with powerful strides, making her back into the island with fear. She had seen her brother and father walk that way to many times not to be frightened. Putting an arm either side of Esmeralda, Adam leaned forward and looked straight into Esmeralda's eyes. "Tell the truth! Was it me?" Adams voice came out in a low, rather menacing growl, although he didn't mean it to sound that way.

Esmeralda's eyes filled with tears and she covered her mouth as a strangled sound came out. "Yes," she choked. "My…my brother said I couldn't see you again but I…I can't…" she failed off as she dropped to her knees.

Adam knelt down beside her and drew her to his chest. Esmeralda clung to him as she cried. "Shhh, I don't want that either. I want to keep seeing you. McGill, you should have called me."

"No!" she shook her head and looked up at him with watery eyes. "Their insane, I'm safe because they want me around to clean the house but you... I don't want anything to happen to you, I wouldn't be able to handle it." Esmeralda suddenly looked shocked and afraid. She dropped her face and started stuttering. "I mean… I wouldn't wa…want to see Phoebe go through the p…pain of seeing you hurt. She's my best friend and I don't like seeing her sad."

"Of course," Adam said simply, looking down at her with a mixture of emotions. He looked confused, calm, and hurt all in one. "Come on, let's go see if Phoebe and Maria have ransacked your make-up and put it on Charlie."

Esmeralda giggled wetly as she allowed Adam to pick her up off the ground. They walked out hand in hand and found the group sitting uncomfortably in the sitting room. Adam noticed Esmeralda look at the half table and wince as she put a hand to her head. It didn't take too much for Adam to realize what was up.

"Come on, guys, I have to go finish the washing up," Adam said, dragging Esmeralda out of the room as the others follow.

"I can do it!" Esmeralda protested.

"No doubt," Adam agreed. "But you're not going to."

Charlie looked bewildered at Adam and Esmeralda acting as though nothing was wrong. He did notice that Esmeralda was looking Adams back sadly, but chose not to comment. Instead, he said something else. "What are we going to do?"

"Nothing," Esmeralda replied quickly.

"But… but we… we can't just leave you here," Charlie stammered.

"And we're not going to!" Adam reassured him. Esmeralda looked at him with a frown of confusion. "Go get some stuff. You're staying at our house till the end of the holidays."

"Banks! No!" Esmeralda retorted, with fire in her eyes. "Do you really think my father would allow that?"

Adam turned to look at the beaten girl. Her bruises stood out more with her solemn expression. "Trust me, McGill, I can get you to stay at our house." When Esmeralda still looked doubtful, Adam looked her directly in the eyes. "Trust me, please."

Sighing, Esmeralda closed her eyes and nodded, a stray tear leaving her unharmed eye.

_**Sorry it took so long, school and all. This chapter's rather short but I just wanted to post something to keep my readers hooked. **_

_**That big green buttons your friend!**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	5. Vertically Challenged

_**I do not own the Ducks, thanks for reading my story, reviews are lovely and thank you to those that do.**_

Esmeralda walked back down the stairs with a bag slung over one of her slumped shoulders. She was no longer wearing short grey pants but dark blue jeans, and over the top of her red tank-top, she wore a black, stylish poncho. "Banks, this isn't going to work," she told the tall boy waiting at the bottom of the stairs. She stopped on the last step and found herself the same height as the boy and standing rather close to him.

"McGill, I thought you trusted me." Adam took Esmeralda's hands in his. "I have a plan, I called mom and she said it was all right for you to stay at our house till the end of holidays, so everything's going to work."

Esmeralda breathed deeply and nodded as Charlie, Maria and Phoebe walked into the Entrance Hall. Just as Esmeralda opened her mouth to say something, they heard the undeniable sound of gravel crunching under car wheels. The girl's mouth snapped shut and she visibly paled. The fear she held for her family was evident on her face. Adam saw her draw in a shaky breath. On instanced, Adam pulled Esmeralda to him and let go of one of her hands, pulling it around her waist. Esmeralda was shaking in his arms. She tucked her head under Adam's chin and put a hand on him chest, closing her eyes.

"It's gonna be alright, just play along," Adam spoke to everyone, but the calming tone to it was for Esmeralda alone.

Esmeralda just lent against Adam heavier, making him tighten his grip around her waist protectively. She could hear his heartbeat increase as she rubbed his chest slightly with her hand. When he talked, his deep voice vibrated through his chest into her ear, making her want to smile. She felt safe, warm and, for once, not totally alone.

They heard a key slide into the lock, just as Adam remembered he didn't lock the door after letting Maria, Charlie and Phoebe in. Two male voices drifted through the door, they were wondering why the door was unlocked.

"Girl!" a deep voice roared as the door opened slowly.

Esmeralda gasped and shook more violently, making Adam hold her even tighter.

"Banks? Conway?" another male voice asked.

Adam looked over to see his old friend David McGill looking at the group in confusion. Adam carefully let go of Esmeralda's hand as he took in the male McGill's appearance. He was stocky, slightly unfit, his face was greasy unlike his sister who had clear skin, his brown hair was the colour of mud and he had inherited his father's bluey-brown eyes where Esmeralda had her mothers brown.

The confusion on David McGill's face changed to anger as he noticed that Adam still had an arm around her waist. "Get way from my sister," David demanded.

"No," Adam replied simply, shifting his arm a little to bring Esmeralda closer to him. "She's coming to stay at my house for the rest of the summer. Seem's…"

"WHAT?!" Mr. McGill exclaimed.

"Seem's as though," Adam started again in a strong voice. "McGill has been a bit vertically challenged of late and seeing as your house has a lot of sharp objects, we all thought it would be better to get her out of the house. My mother, the nurse, believes it's exactly what she needs. My mom can look after her and allow her to heal." Adam looked straight at David to see his face redden as Adam spoke once more. "We'll get her back to her old beautiful self."

"Bye, Sir," Esmeralda's said quickly, looking at the floor as she blushed at Adams complement. She rushed passed a fuming Mr. McGill and pulled Adam to the door after her. Everyone else followed her example and ran off after them.

The group ran down the drive and through the Iron Gate before Mr. McGill had a chance to close it on them. They ran to Adam's car and when they got there, they were out of breath. Charlie didn't even ask if he could sit in the front, he just slid in the back next to Maria. Esmeralda sat in the front with Adam and started rummaging through her bag.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten something!" Adam said as he turned on the engine.

"No, most of my stuff is at my dorm anyway, or at my grandmothers so there isn't much I needed to grab. Just making sure my arm socks are here." Esmeralda pulled out a sock like this that had the end cut off and a hole for her thumb. They were made to keep the arms warm but Adam had noticed that Esmeralda had worn an electric blue pair when they were bowling and hadn't taken them off when she put on the dress. But it wasn't cold, she was hiding something.

The drive to the Banks house was silent. No one had anything to say. When they got to the house, they all filled out and went inside. Mr. and Mrs. Banks weren't home so they wouldn't have to deal with a very worried Mrs. Banks until later. The moment Phoebe opened the door she and Esmeralda ran into the house.

"I bags Banks' bed!" Esmeralda yelled.

"What?! No." Adam ran after her as she laughed and ran up the stairs. He grabbed her around the waist and made her walk down the stairs before dropping her on the couch. "That's your bed!"

"So much for being a gentleman," Esmeralda muttered, crossing her arms.

Phoebe giggled and sat down next to Esmeralda. The two started talking and laughing as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened so far today. After calling their mother to tell her that Esmeralda was at the house already, Adam called the Ducks and invited them over. They were hammering at the door within five minutes. Upon seeing Esmeralda, Connie and Julie yelped and ran over to her. They fussed over her as the other Ducks asked what happened. Instead of telling the truth, Adam told them what he had told his mother. She had been a bit vertically challenged because of a sickness. That seemed to work.

As they talked, Esmeralda removed her poncho and as she did, some of the Ducks say a scar. On her left forearm, a few centimeters from her wrist was an ugly, large scar. It went diagonally and was eight centimeters by about 1 ½ -2 centimeters. It was old and faded but you could clearly see it, especially without her arm socks things on.

When Adam and Phoebe offered refreshments, the Ducks that had seen the scar jumped at the chance to help. The Ducks that went into the sunlit kitchen with Adam and Phoebe were Charlie, Portman, Fulton, Connie, Guy, and Jesse. All of them hesitated to ask, and instead watched Adam and Phoebe pull out cups, drink, bowls and chips. Finally, one of them spoke.

"Why does Esmeralda have a massive scar on her arm?" Fulton asked in a soft voice, afraid his usual one would drift into the lounge where everyone else sat.

Adam chuckled softly and lent back against the basin. He took a sip of his drink before answering, "Sorry, it's not actually funny, but McGill seems to try and hide it and you lot still saw. David had a bad temper, has a bad temper, and right before the Ducks – Hawks match he was angry we did so well and threw his skate at her. It cut her wrist."

Phoebe frowned as she straightened up, pulling a large orange bowl out of the cupboard. "No he didn't… well yes, he threw his skate at her, _when he found out he was versing the Ducks_ but he didn't _hit_ her. That was self harm. She tried to kill herself while everyone was at the game. Thank god her mother's friend dropped in to check on her. She told me the same story as she told you and she told the doctors that she knew her brother was going to lose the game so she decided to shine his old skates to cheer him up. Everyone believed it. Everyone got wise when she tried two more times. Second one: she used the pain killers the doctors gave her for her wrist to overdose. She told them that her arm woke her in the middle of the night so she got up and didn't realize how many she had taken. Mom realized when she tried to drown herself. Esmeralda is a great swimmer and we used to spend practically all summer at the beach so mom knew she could swim."

Adam was stunned into silence. Esmeralda had come into his room when he ended up in hospital during the Hawks – Duck match. She had told him her lie with ease. And he had believed it! How stupid could he get! Esmeralda was suffering and he didn't notice. He should have guessed from the way she had acted, she had been saying goodbye, in an extremely _permanent_ way.

"Adam, don't beat yourself up over it. I'm her best friend and I believed more then one of her lies. She's good at making you see what she wants you to see. She's done it all her life," Phoebe reassured him.

"But I never fell for it before." Adam slammed his glass onto the table in the center of the room, making some of the beverage splash out.

"That's 'cause you didn't want to think that a ten-year-old would want to kill herself. Cake-eater, she's fine and… I'm assuming… she's not suicidal anymore," Jesse told his friend.

"He's right, Banksie, my friend tried to kill himself and all I could think was 'I should have seen this coming' and 'I should have been able to stop him'. He's alright now but god I felt guilty. Essi's a nice girl, and she seems a little happier. I don't buy her sickness injuries, but she seems better and she certainly likes teasing you," Portman sympathized.

Adam nodded as a cheerful brunette ran into the room.

"What's happening with the refreshments? I'm thrusty," Esmeralda informed them. Everyone just looked at her oddly. Having just found out a dark secret about Esmeralda's past. Noticing the looks, Esmeralda quirked an eyebrow at them. "What?"

"Nothing, we were just talking," Phoebe covered up.

Esmeralda nodded before walking over and picking up Adam's abandoned cup. "Who's is this?"

"Mine," Adam told her.

Upon hearing this, Esmeralda raised it to her lips as she turned, grabbed a chip and walked out of the room.

"You're welcome," Adam yelled ar her.

Phoebe chuckled as she gave Connie, Charlie and Jesse things to take out into the lounge room and started pouring drinks with Fulton, Portman and Guy's help.

Adam didn't pay much attention to the conversations going on around him and his friends had long given up on trying to talk to him. He just kept thinking over the day he had seen Esmeralda in the hospital. It was the day they said their goodbyes, believing they would never see each other again. No matter what Portman and everyone else said, he couldn't help but blame himself. He had noticed a difference but decided to be selfish and not think too much on it.

When he climbed into bed that night, after watching his mother clean up Esmeralda's cuts, Adam still felt guilty. His head was spinning because of all the thoughts running through it, all on the same subject: Esmeralda and their last meeting as kids.

It was late when he finally fell into a restless sleep.

_Adam raised a shaky hand to his head as it continued to throb. He was still weak and his breathing was shallow but he could keep his eyes open for longer now. He knew the nurse that checked on him didn't like hockey, or kids. He had heard her whining about it as she left the room. All he wanted at the moment was company… and maybe for someone to tell him how the game was going._

_Just as he ran his hand across his face and dropped it at his side, Adam felt a hand on his stomach. Opening his eyes and looking over, Adam was startled to see Esmeralda McGill looking at him with big brown eyes. Her arm was heavily bandaged and concern was written on her face._

"_I heard a nurse talking about hockey and violent games and I knew it was you," she confessed. "My brother did it, didn't he?"_

_Adam took a weak breath and looked at her. "Yeah," he struggled to say, "What happened to your arm?"_

"_Oh." Esmeralda looked down at her arm. "David threw his old skates at me when he was getting ready to face the Ducks."_

_Adam nodded before tapping the space beside him on the bed. Esmeralda smiled and climbed onto the bed. She laid down beside him and Adam shifted slowly onto his side. "Are you alright?" his voice was barely above a whisper. Although it hurt to speak, he wanted to talk to her._

_Esmeralda nodded, wiggling closer to Adam. "The nice Doctor stopped the bleeding, but the mean nurse poked it. Bet it was on purpose."_

_Adam chuckled but the strain it took on his throat made him cough. Esmeralda sat up and grabbed a cup of water. She helped Adam drink to stop his coughing._

"_Thanks."_

"_Maybe you shouldn't talk so much. Just lay back." Esmeralda pushed him gently, making him lay on his back. She laid back down and put her head on his uninjured shoulder. She looked up at him with shining eyes. Esmeralda reached out a hand and ran a finger down the bridge of his nose. Adam looked down at her with a questioning look. "I like your nose," Esmeralda confessed. She sat up slightly and looked down at him. "And your eyes. They're big, and a nice colour."_

_Adam didn't know what to say. It wasn't often that Esmeralda said such bold things, especially to Adam. There was something unfamiliar in her eyes as she looked at him. But he didn't have long to look. She ran her finger down his nose again, smiled, giggled softly and laid back down. Adam started to get drowsy. As he did, he noticed that Esmeralda was playing with his hand and fingers innocently._

_Time ticked by and Adam knew that the game was probably almost over, if it wasn't already. That meant that the Ducks would more then likely be heading over to see him. Esmeralda obviously noticed this to because she sat back up and looked down at him again._

"_Adam." His first name sounded funny, being spoken by Esmeralda. They _always _said each others last names. "I know that your team would have won. David will keep me away from you and your father will keep you away from me. I have to say goodbye."_

_Adam looked into Esmeralda's big brown eyes with his big blue ones. "Esmeralda, you don't have to. I can handle your brother."_

"_But you shouldn't have to. And you wont have to." Esmeralda sat up a little more so she didn't need her hand to keep herself up. She raised her hands and fumbled with the latch of a necklace she wore. "Here,' she said, putting the gold chain in Adam's hand. He knew what the necklace was. It held a gold ring with diamonds that he and Esmeralda found in the ocean one day whilst swimming and playing. She closed his hand over the necklace and gave his hand a squeeze before laying down, her head resting on the pillow this time instead of him. "I have to go soon. But first…"_

_Adam turned onto his side when Esmeralda trailed off. It took a lot of effort but it didn't matter. "What?"_

_Esmeralda raised her eyes to meet his. She took a breath before leaning forward sharply. She captured his lips with hers. Adam gasped and raised his hand to her cheek, responding to the kiss. It was the hand that had the necklace and was connected to his sore shoulder so he winced slightly but dismissed it._

_When Esmeralda finally drew back, she looked at him sadly. "Bye, Banks," she mumbled._

"_Bye, McGill."_

_With that, Esmeralda got up and walked out of the room, only moments before the Ducks showed up._

Adam was tossing and turning in his sleep. He was dreaming of the hospital. After the memory played through he would get flashes of Esmeralda bleeding to death in his arms. He woke with a gasp when someone touched his bare shoulder lightly.

"Shhh," the person soothed. "It's alright, Banks, it's just me. You were having a bad dream."

It took Adam's eyes a moment to focus. When they did, Esmeralda's face came swimming into view. "McGill, wha…what are you doing here?"

"I was coming back from using the upstairs bathroom, didn't want to wake your parents, and I heard you mumbling 'please don't, I want to help you', and some other stuff," Esmeralda ended vaguely. "Is everything alright?"

Adam was only half paying attention. He nodded and looked down so Esmeralda couldn't tell he was lying. Looking down was a big mistake. He only just noticed that Esmeralda was wearing a large t-shirt and only a large t-shirt for coverage. The shirt had skates and a hockey stick on it. Under it, were the words 'Hockey Babe'. The shirt was lucky to reach halfway to her knees.

"Scoot over," Esmeralda demanded. Adam obliged and Esmeralda got into the bed beside him.

The moment she looked at him, Adam said the question that had been running through his head all day. "Why didn't you tell me you wanted to kill yourself?"

"Because you would have stopped me," Esmeralda confessed calmly, fixing the gold chain around Adam's neck.

"Exactly, I would have stopped you, helped you."

"I didn't want you to get hurt because of me."

Adam just cupped her cheek with his hand. He didn't know what to say so they just laid in silence. Eventually Esmeralda's and Adam's eyes started to droop with sleep.

_**Hope you liked it enough to review. o0Black-Sand0o**_


	6. I Know

_**I don't own the Ducks, reviews are lovely and thank you to those that do. The flash backs are more then likely going to stop (Not to sure atm) but you now know about the two kisses.**_

Adam shifted slightly as the sun streamed through his window into his face. As he did, his arm slid over something curved and warm. There was a soft, rhythmical breeze hitting his chest and there was a hand on his chest. Groaning, Adam warily opened his eyes. His back was to the window so the sun didn't hurt his eyes as much as it would have. When he opened them, he found that his arm was around a curved waist, the hand on his chest was female and the breeze was actually breaths, passing through parted lips. Lying, curled up next to him was Esmeralda.

She had one hand against his chest and the other under the pillow. The blankets were pulled to her ribs and her hair fell over her face gently. She looked peaceful and rested. She wiggled in her sleep as she moved closer to Adam.

Adam reached out his hand and brushed Esmeralda's hair out of her face. He cupped her cheek and sighed. He had heard what Charlie asked Maria, '_Essi's the reason Adam doesn't date isn't she? He likes her and doesn't know it'. _Adam snorted. The answer was yes, but he did know. How could he not? He had liked Esmeralda since he was about seven. Back then he had mistaken it for dislike and that's why he fought with her, but then, after the dare, he realized he wasn't disgusted with kissing her. He had enjoyed it. He knew but wouldn't say. He would rather like her in silence and never know how she felt about him then tell her and see her face when she told him she didn't feel the same.

Esmeralda tilted her head up in her sleep and Adam started to lower his face to hers but as he was close enough for her to feel his breath on her face, Esmeralda turned her head and buried her face in Adam's pillow, covering her head with her arm that had been against Adam's body. Adam pulled back and looked defeated. Releasing the short breath he had been holding, Adam slid out of the bed, trying not to wake Esmeralda.

Getting up, Adam pulled a pair of jeans out of his wardrobe and pulled them on over his boxer shorts. He snuck out of the room and down the stairs. It was early so none of his family was up. His father had to get up in about twenty minutes, his mother had a day off and Maria and Phoebe slept in late most days. He already had an excuse made up as to why Esmeralda was in his bed and not on the couch. It would be believable because everyone knew he wouldn't make a more on Esmeralda. Maria, Phoebe and maybe his mother knew he cared for her but they knew he wouldn't do anything about it.

He sat in the lounge room, reading a book, until his family got up. His father didn't pay him any attention as he dashed off to work, his mother got up and started to cook with the help of the house keeper and Phoebe came skipping down the stairs. When she saw Adam sitting on the wrecked, make-shrift bed, she stopped.

"Where's Essi?" she questioned.

Adam looked up from the page he was reading and over at his sister. "Oh, I was _apparently_ annoying her when I got up, so she went to sleep in my room. I'll go wake her up." Adam hopped up and marked his page. He then grabbed the blankets that were on the couch for Esmeralda and walked up the stairs. Phoebe followed to see what he was doing. When he got to his door, he opened it and chucked the blanket in, onto the lump in his bed. "Wake up," he demanded.

Esmeralda shifted and groaned. "Banks," she whined, moving the extra blankets off of her. She looked over at him with sleepy eyes as Phoebe shook her head at her brother and walked off. The moment Esmeralda saw him and let her eyes focus, she blushed and dropped back down onto the bed. "Banks, I know you love yourself, but put on a shirt." She had her eyes closed and she was facing the window, not him.

Adam looked down at his bare chest before looking back at the girl in his bed. "It's not like I have a beer gut!"

Esmeralda muttered something Adam thought sounded like, "It would help if you did," before throwing the blankets over her head.

Adam smiled, shook his head and walked over to her. He went around the bed and slowly started to try and prize the blankets out of the girl's grasp. When that failed, Adam snuck his arms under the sheets and found Esmeralda's hips. He started to tickle her, which made her squirm and let go. He reefed the sheets off her and looked down at her form. She was laying there, curled up slightly, with her hair fanning out behind her and on her face and her night shirt ruffled.

Esmeralda peaked at him from under the hand covering her face. "You're mean."

"And you're lazy. Get up, mom's cooking breakfast and it should be ready soon."

"Put on a t-shirt," Esmeralda demanded.

Leaning over, Adam brought his face close to hers and put a friendly hand on her leg. "I'll put a t-shirt on, if you get up."

Esmeralda grumbled before sitting up and sliding off the bed. As she did, her top slid up her legs. Adam looked away politely before walking over to his wardrobe and pulling open the draw at the bottom. As he rummaged through it for a decent shirt he became aware of Esmeralda watching him. Straightening up, Adam turned to look at the girl that was sitting on the end of his bed calmly.

"What?!" he asked.

"You have a lot of muscles in your back." Esmeralda observed. She then looked over his chest and Adam felt himself go self-conscious. Turning, Adam started looking for a shirt again, trying to ignore Esmeralda's eyes on him.

He couldn't, however, ignore her appearing beside him and whispering in his ear, "And a nice six-pack on the front." She spun and left with the grace of a dancer before Adam could even straighten up. He was actually thankful for that, seeing as he was blushing at her observation.

All through breakfast Adam was trying to catch Esmeralda looking at him but he didn't. She was either sneakier then he thought or she wasn't eyeing him off. To say her comment hadn't shaken him up was a lie. She had caught him off guard and he didn't know how to react. Instead of being around her and feeling awkward, Adam called Charlie, Fulton and Portman (Who was at Fulton's) and asked them if they wanted to go skating. They didn't always hang out with all the Ducks and at the moment he just wanted a small group of people, not a large one.

The boys skated and joked as the day went on. But when it started to get late and they were thinking about heading back to their homes, Charlie, Fulton and Portman sucked up their courage. All three of them had wanted to confront Adam about he's feelings but none of them were game enough… till now.

"Banks, you do know that you li…" Portman started.

"That I like McGill?" Adam finished with a knowing smirk. "Yeah, I know."

The three boys were stunned into silence. Charlie was the first to recover. "You know?"

"Charlie." Adam sighed and gave a small smile. "I've known since I was around seven. When David made the dare with me I thought I'll be disguised but… I threw that game," Adam confessed. "I played well enough to win, but poor enough that David was better. At first I didn't know why I did it but then I figured it out."

"So, why haven't you told her?" Fulton scrunched up his face in confusion.

"Because it is better to suffer in silence with questions then live with the answer and a broken heart."

"What the hell?!" Portman exclaimed.

Adam chuckled. "It's something similar to what McGill said. Hers was about something else. 'Better to suffer in silence with pain then speak up and get others hurt'."

"Okay, new question: what did she do to make you want out of the house?" Charlie asked with a cheeky smile.

Adam returned his smile with one of his own. "She threw me off guard."

"How weird is it to be around her as a teenager?" Portman put his hands in his jacket pocket as he looked at Adam.

"Very," Adam confessed. "I normally didn't notice how small her outfits were." This caused the other boys to laugh. "And she's a lot more out spoken then before so she also has bolder comments."

"Hence the throwing off your guard." Portman wiggled his eyebrows at him suggestively.

Adam sighed and threw back his head in exasperation. "She didn't do anything dirty!"

"Well tell us what she did," Fulton demanded.

They weren't going to let Adam out of this easily. "Goodbye, guys," Adam said before going to skate off. He found his way blocked however, by the two Bash Brothers and Charlie Conway. He rolled his eyes and muttered the answer.

"What?!" Charlie cupped his hand around his ear, ethicizing the fact that he didn't hear Adam.

"Never mind," Adam snapped, becoming embarrassed.

"No, come on, tell us. We'll be serious, Adam, you like this girl and I, for one, want to help you out," Portman said truthfully, using his first name for probably the first time.

Adam sighed and rolled his eyes. He could feel his cheeks heating up as they reddened. "I was having a nightmare about McGill wanting to kill herself and she heard on her way back from the bathroom, she woke me and started talking to me. I told her the truth and she laid down and listened and we both fell asleep," Adam started off, not telling the story with one hundred percent detail. He didn't remember last night all that well. "I woke up early like I sometimes do and got up. When Phoebe got up I made the excuse that I woke McGill in the morning and she went into my room to get more sleep. I went and threw the blankets that were on the lounge, on to her and woke her. She told me to put on a shirt since I was just in jeans and as I looked for one she was watching me."

"Okay… ignoring the fact that you two spent the night together, why did this catch you off guard?" Portman asked in confusion.

"I'm getting to that," Adam mumbled just loud enough for his friends to hear. His face felt white hot but he knew it was red. "I asked her why she as watching me and she said 'You have a lot of muscles in your back', then she said something about a six-pack at the front." Adam remembered Esmeralda's actual wording but didn't want to use it. He was already embarrassed enough.

None of his friends laughed. They truly looked like they were mulling over what was said. Next minute, Portman smiled and clapped Adam on the back. "I think she likes you."

"She's just weird!" Adam retorted.

The boys knew that protests would be lost on Adam, so they decided to part ways and go home before it got too late. When at home, Adam refused too look Esmeralda in the eye. He even considered locking his door that night when he went to bed. He didn't though, seeing as Esmeralda only entered his room the night before because she had heard him mumbling in his sleep over the nightmare. He _hoped_ he wouldn't have the nightmares again. He slid under the sheets and put his head on his pillow. When he did, he smelt the fruit Guava, mixed with vanilla, green tea and mango. The scent was not his, it was female. Breathing deeply, Adam drifted off into a thankfully peaceful sleep.

_**I'm on holidays so I might update a few time in the two weeks. I can't make any promises though. Grrr, my original ending was deleted so I had to try and rewrite it. I don't know if it's the same, but it's close.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o… P.S. Hope you enjoyed and want to review!**_


	7. Broken Eyes

_**I do not own the Ducks, thank you for reading, and thank you for reviewing.**_

When Adam woke up, he decided to have a shower. As he neared the shower, his sister came out. With her, a waft of Guava, vanilla and green tea followed her.

"Why do you smell like McGill?" Adam questioned. "And why are you using that bathroom? You have an on-suite"

"Cause her stuff smells nice and she said I could use some," Phoebe told him as she dried her hair. "It's all in the bathroom so I couldn't help myself."

Adam rolled his eyes before walking into the bathroom. Having a shower when all he could smell was Esmeralda was… odd, to say the least. When he was finished, he went into the living room to scold Esmeralda and tell her to remove her properties from the bathroom when she wasn't using it. He wished the Plummer would hurry up and fix his on-suite. Stupid pipes! Entering the living room, he found his sisters, mother and Esmeralda all talking together.

"McGill, get your stuff out of the bathroom," Adam demanded.

Esmeralda looked over at him before turning her head away bashfully. Adam couldn't work out why until he looked down and saw that he was just in a towel and he was still dripping wet.

"Only if you go get dressed," Esmeralda bargained. Adam chose not to point out that Esmeralda's denim short-shorts and tie-die tank-top that showed her navel weren't much more coverage then he had.

Mrs. Banks looked at the two teens in amusement. "Don't worry, Adam, we were just telling Essie how she can sleep in the guest bedroom now."

"Now, why is it that I couldn't when I first got here?" Esmeralda asked out of curiosity.

"Oh, well, my mud covered brother and his friends thought it would be fun to skate _in the house_ just as Malinka walked over to the linens cupboard and went to put away the laundry. The boys lost control and they all crashed into the linens cupboard making the linens in the cupboard and in Malinka's basket fall all over them and get covered in mud. It was the day before we went to the bowling ally so Malinka hadn't finished cleaning them." Phoebe shook her head at Adam.

"Okay, so which guest room am I in?"

"The one with an on-suite, that way Adam doesn't have to shower in a bathroom that smells like you," Maria joked.

"And you and Phoebe can't steal my products." Esmeralda smiled at the thought.

"You said we could, didn't you?" Phoebe asked, unsure now.

"Yes, I was joking." Esmeralda shyly looked at Adam. "You get dressed and I'll get my stuff."

"…And that sounds like you two are planning something," Maria added to the end.

"No, Maria, if we were planning something, she wouldn't tell me to get dressed," Adam corrected his sister before turning and walking upstairs to his bedroom. Esmeralda had followed him upstairs but didn't say anything as she headed to the bathroom to grab her smelly products and put them in the on-suite in the main guest room.

Esmeralda's eyes widened the moment they landed on Adam. Her mouth dried and she looked away out of fear of doing something stupid if she kept looking at him. He had walked down stairs and ordered her to get her things out of the bathroom. She guessed he didn't like the smell, her smell. She couldn't look at him though. He was standing there with only a towel around his waist for coverage and water dripping down his chest.

She had talked with Maria, Phoebe and Mrs. Banks for a little while before following Adam up the stairs to do as Adam had asked. She chose not to respond to his comment for it was causing her cheeks to heat up at the thought. As she followed him, she tried not to look at his back. Instead she focused on how evil Adam was at that particular moment for walking around with no top. When she got to the guest room, she put her things in the bathroom and started to make the bed. She had decided to save Malinka the trouble seeing as what the Ducks put her through. It obviously wasn't easy being the Banks house-keeper. At least she was in her thirties and happily married so she didn't have to worry about Adam walking around in nothing but a towel because she wouldn't notice. And if she did, she'd just scold him for risking a cold.

As Esmeralda struggled to pull the sheet over the Queen sized bed, she lost her footing and fell onto the bed with an 'oof'.

"Well this is a lovely site."

Esmeralda quickly turned over to see a male form standing in the door. It was Charlie Conway. "Hey, I'm just trying to make the bed."

"Trying being the key word," Charlie joked, moving into the room.

His movements obviously made Esmeralda uncomfortable because she jumped up and brushed herself off. All the while shooting looks at the empty doorway as though she expected to see someone there.

"What?" Charlie asked, moving closer to her. Esmeralda started to fidget as Charlie drew further into the door and more towards her. "Nice outfit, you could pass as Daisy Duke."

"Umm, thanks?" Esmeralda said uncertainly she was thankful that she had put her hair up using a clip, because her neck was heating up at the embarrassing scene happening.

Charlie smiled flirtatiously at her. They were the same height. Charlie lent forward and whispered in her ear, "Want help with the bed?"

Esmeralda drew back sharply. "No thank you," Esmeralda replied in a cutting voice.

"I was hoping you'd say that." Charlie smiled his friendly, slightly lopsided smile before stepping back and going over to the other side of the bed. "Come on, I'll help you. I was only doing that to see something." Charlie's eyes twinkled as though he had just discovered a secret that everyone one wanted to know but only he did.

Esmeralda took Charlie up on his offer to help but kept a wary eye on him the whole time. Just as they finished, the song 'Have a Nice day' by Bon Jovi started to play. Charlie looked around bemused, for the source of the song as Esmeralda calmly grabbed her handbag and pulled out her mobile. She looked at the id before pressing the talk button and putting it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Essi, hey, you know you love me, right?"

"Clover, yes, I love you, now what do you want?" Esmeralda said.

Laughter issued from the other end. "I have to work and my father has to work and my mother has errands to run and there is this Essie look alike…"

"Say no more," Esmeralda cut her off. "I'll be over ones I sucker a ride out of Banks or Maria."

Laughter again. "Thank you, honey, see you soon, and good luck with the suckering."

"Thanks, see you soon."

"I can drive you," Charlie offered.

Esmeralda looked uncomfortable about that idea. "No, it's all right I don't want to put you out. I'll just ask Banks or Maria. I know Maria would agree in a heartbeat." Esmeralda walked out of the room before Charlie could say a word against it. She went and saw Adam first. He was strapping on his skates and hadn't even noticed Esmeralda. He and Charlie had plans to go skating. Instead of asking, she just stood in the doorway, watching him for a moment before deciding not to bother and walking off to find Maria. As Esmeralda had predicted, Maria agreed straight away.

Maria dropped Esmeralda off and she walked into the building and over to the elevator, pressing the button for the Harmon penthouse. The moment the elevator opened with a ding, Clover Harmon was beside her.

"Hi, thank you, bye." Clover kissed Esmeralda on the cheek before placing a bundle in Esmeralda's hands and walking into the elevator. "He looks more and more like you everyday." The honey-blonde haired, green eyes girl said before waving and hitting the ground floor button.

Esmeralda waved back before looking down at the bundle. She smiled as plain brown eyes looked back at her. The boy's hair was mahogany brown and was fine and short.

"Hello, my darling, Kevin, I've missed you," Esmeralda cooed, kissing him on the cheek. There was no doubting that there was a blood connection between Esmeralda and this boy. "I'd ask you what you've been up to, but you'll just say baby things. Do you want to hear about the better parts of my time?"

The boy smiled and giggled as he wiggled his feet happily. Esmeralda took that as a yes and started jiggling the boy as she talked. "Well, I saw Grandma who almost cried at your adorable picture, then the next day I went to the bowling ally with Maria and Phoebe, you know them, you threw up on Maria. And they had invited their brother and his hockey team. Oh, hockey is a dangerous sport we'll talk about _maybe_ letting you play when you're older, depending on how many teeth you want to have when you're an adult. I think you'd like the Ducks, their kooky like your Aunty Phoebe and Aunty Maria. Their brother, Adam, was an old friend of my brother." At this the child pulled a pained expression and looked on the verge of tears. "Oh, no, honey, he's really nice, and sweet, and…" Esmeralda sighed happily as Kevin calmed down. "I think you'd really like him, as long as his wearing a shirt and is not dripping wet. Then again, you're a baby boy, so you wouldn't care like me. And no, I am not telling you why I care if he's shirtless and wet. Even when you're older."

Esmeralda looked after the infant for hours, all the while talking to him and reading him stories like he was older then ten months. She would sometimes talk to him in a baby voice, but she could tell, his eyes were slightly broken like hers, he knew a lot for his age. Thankfully, his weren't as bad as Esmeralda's.

_**Hope you liked, I'm thinking of starting another MD story. Still continuing on with this one of course. What'cha think?**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	8. Not That Threatening

_**I know the last one was short and I'm sorry, and NO I'm not telling you who Kevin is. I don't own the Ducks, reviews are lovely and thank you for the reviews.**_

Phoebe dug in her handbag as she walked down the street. She was looking for her phone that seemed to allot her. She wanted to call Esmeralda and see if she could come over and see Kevin. He was like her nephew, even if there was no blood relation.

The girl suddenly sensed danger and looked up. There, not far up the street, was Esmeralda's brother and a few of his friends. As she starred at them in shock, they noticed her. The moment they did, she turned and ran off, with them following.

She ran down the pathway, using her dancer reflexes to dodge people. As she turned the corner and kept running, she came to a crashing stop. Strong arms stopped her from falling on the ground. She looked up with panicked eyes and saw Jesse. Relief spread through her and a smile graced her face.

The smile disappeared however, when she looked over her shoulder and say McGill and his friends still following. She looked back at Jesse and swept her eyes over his build.

"You're not threatening enough, come on." Phoebe grabbed his arm and pulled him into a run. They didn't run long before they skidded into a shop. The shop turned out to be a diner. Quickly, the two teens went over to a booth and sat on the floor, hiding their forms from the window were a group of boys stood looking for their prey.

"So what was that about?" Jesse whispered softly.

"That big ones McGill, you know, Essi's brother. He's not happy with Essi staying with us," Phoebe whispered back, her heavy panting mixing with Jesse's lighter ones, seeing as they were huddled close together.

"He beats her, doesn't he?" Jesse asked tenderly.

Phoebe diverted her blue eyes from his chocolate brown ones. "C…can we change the subject, please?" Phoebe pleaded.

Jesse looked at Phoebe softly and did as she asked. "What did you mean by 'you're not threatening enough'? Don't you think I'm tough?" Jesse tried to flex but their close proximity made it look comical.

Phoebe giggled at his antics. "No, I just meant that you wouldn't have much luck scaring McGill's group. They're five strong guys after all. Dean or Fulton would have better luck," Phoebe reassured him.

"I would take offence to that, but there's no denying that they're scary." Jesse then bravely put his head up to look over the booths seat. When he saw that the coast was clear, he and Phoebe got up and sat in the seats. "Well, since I can't scare off threatening boys, I can at least buy you a drink and some lunch."

Phoebe was hesitant to agree but then Jesse put the puppy dog pout on and Phoebe gave in with a sigh. The two sat talking for a while before Phoebe asked the question she had always wondered about. "Why didn't you go to Eden Hall with the rest of the Ducks?"

Jesse sighed and put down his drink before turning back to his food. "My brother didn't go to the JGG so he didn't have a scholarship to the school. I refused to attend a school he wouldn't be at. Then Terry got me into soccer, so I'm happy. So what school do you go to?"

"Cutlan Hall," Phoebe answered simply, sipping her coke.

"No way!" Jesse said in astonishment. "I go to Cutlan, why haven't I seen you there?"

"Essi and I spend most of our time in the dance room and I'm easy to miss." Phoebe smiled at Jesse, not caring that he hadn't noticed her.

"I doubt that, but then again, I spend all my breaks on the soccer field. I don't notice much besides the soccer ball." Jesse laughed as Phoebe snorted at him.

"You're hopeless."

"Well, at least I can't complain that there's no good-looking girls' at my school, with a sense of humour to boot."

Jesse's complement caused Phoebe to blush modestly.

"So tell me what the deal is about Essi and Cake-eater," Jesse said before taking a bit out of his burger.

"Oh, umm, well, did Coach Bombay tell you guys that my dad and Bombay's old boss were going to re-draft the lines so Adam would stay a Hawk?" When Jesse shook his head, Phoebe went on, "Adam asked dad to let him stay on the Hawks. It wasn't the team, it was Essi. Adam was the only thing that Essi had to be… a dampener, I guess you could say. He stopped McGill from hurting her too badly, and in turn, dad's pressure on Adam didn't seem as bad. Essi would make jokes like, 'You _should_ be the best on the team, that way the other team will want to hurt you'. Looking back they're kinda silly jokes but when we were kids it was good."

"If you ever hear Essi and Adam talking about Adam leaving, it was not actual leaving. When Adam became a Duck, he tried to stay her friend, but he saw McGill at the North Stars game and he did a gun sign…"

"Yeah, I saw that, what was that about?" Jesse questioned when Phoebe faltered.

"A gun shot stood for violence. He was telling Adam that he was going to hurt Essi; that _Adam_ was going to hurt Essi. If he didn't stop talking to her, her life would be worse then it already was. He didn't _not_ wanted to be a Duck; he just knew that being a Duck meant that he'd have to leave Essi behind. Leave her life."

"When he entered the Ducks changing room, I gave him a hard time and when we were versing the Hawks, I told him to remember what team he was on," Jesse confessed, feeling guilty.

"How could he forget, he gave up Esmeralda for the team." Phoebe sighed and turned back to her food. "You hurt him, saying the team line."

Jesse sighed. "I know. I apologized when I saw him in the hospital, but I don't think he was listening. He looked sad, I thought he was going to cry but I didn't know why. When the team asked what was wrong, he said nothing was the matter but when we came in we saw him touch his lips."

Phoebe nodded. She wouldn't tell anyone, not even Adam and Essi, but she knew what had happened that day. They had said goodbye and both of them were hurting deeply because of it.

After spending more time talking, laughing and getting to know one another, Jesse offered to take Phoebe home.

Esmeralda opened the thankfully unlocked door. She wanted to get in, have a shower and go to work without having to deal with anything else. She was drained and she barely had enough energy to sustain her the rest of the day.

Sighing, she made her way into the kitchen to get a drink. Pouring herself a glass of water, she let the cool liquid return some of her energy. She loved Kevin but he could be a handful at times and make her wonder if she was any good at looking after him. He had listened to her story but when she put him down to sleep, he started crying. Some say children could remember things from the woom and Esmeralda had a feeling he didn't like what he had hear whilst in there. It haunted him in his sleep. Poor boy!

Esmeralda felt a comforting hand touch her tense shoulder. She didn't turn to see who it was. The hand was male and Mr. Banks would never enter a room without saying hello and Justin was in Boston. Adam moved closer to her and slid his hand down her back, resting it on her hip.

"Something wrong?" Adam whispered in her ear. The house was empty but the atmosphere called for quiet voices.

"Just exhausted." Esmeralda sighed, leaning back into Adam.

"That's no good, why don't you go rest?" Adam advised, pushing back Esmeralda's hair so he could see her face.

Esmeralda closed her eyes for a moment before turning around, leaning against the edge of the island behind her. "Do you think my family's cursed to either be horrible people or to have bad life? What if I have kids one day and end up being like my father? He was taught to be the way he is. My grandfather was a great man but his brother wasn't. What about if I learnt something off my father? Ke... never mind," Esmeralda finished, not wanting to bring Kevin into the conversation. She looked up into Adam's eyes, silently begging him to say something.

Adam's hand had never left Esmeralda's body as she had turned and now it rested on her opposite hip. He removed his hand and ghosted her cheek. (Not touching her but mimicking the motion). "McGill, you are nothing like your father. Your mother was a kind woman, the sweetest person I've ever met. You are her daughter, McGill, through and through. You're sweet, kind, funny and always wanting to help. I don't know what's made you get these stupid thoughts in your head but if you want my opinion. You'd make a great mom. You'd never do _anything _that could hurt your child."

Esmeralda closed her eyes for a moment as a stray tear fell from her eye. She didn't know herself why she thought this. Seeing Kevin already knowing emotional pain made her worry; made her think she was no good with kids.

Opening her eyes, she looked up the short distance to Adam's face, unconsciously moving closer to him. He was watching his hand as he raised it to Esmeralda's forehead, gently brushing a few strands of hairs away. The touch made Esmeralda gasp and raise herself up slightly.

Adam stroked Esmeralda's cheek with the back of his fingers before following the curve of her neck, all-the-while watching his hands movements. When Adam brushed her collarbone, she gasped and closed her eyes, turning her face up to his. He lowered his face to hers, he was so close he could feel the heat radiating off of Esmeralda's parted lips.

"Hey… guys."

Adam jumped and looked over at the doorway as Esmeralda's eyes snapped open and followed the noise.

There, standing in the doorway looking uncomfortable, was Phoebe.

Esmeralda ducked her head and moved out from between the island and Adam. She then quickly left the kitchen and the awkward scene, going upstairs.

"Hey, Sis," Adam said, running his fingers through his hair.

"Hey, Jesse said hi," Phoebe responded, feeling a little more comfortable now that Esmeralda and Adam weren't in such close contact. To anyone else, that would have been a situation to question, but Phoebe knew her brother and best friend. They were so comfortable around each other that they sometimes didn't realize that their behavior was surpassing friendly till after.

"You were hanging out with Jesse?" Adam asked, putting Esmeralda's empty cup in the sink.

"Yeah, I almost had a run in with Essi's brother and his friends but then I ran into Jesse and he pulled me into a diner to hide and we ended up having lunch and talking. Did you know he goes to Cutlan?"

"Oh, yeah, I did, I just never thought to mention it. Terry does too." Adam was clearly forcing conversation. His mind was preoccupied with thoughts of what _almost_ just happened.

Phoebe noticed this and took the hint, walking off, up to her room. She knew that Esmeralda had to work so she didn't bother to go talk to her. She would be getting ready. She just hoped Adam could focus before the Ducks came over to go to the movies. If he didn't they wouldn't question him, they would question Phoebe to get the answers as to what was wrong. God, that was going to annoy her, although, she would probably tell Jesse.

A wide smile appeared on Phoebe's face at the thought of the handsome boy. Only Esmeralda knew that Phoebe had had an on and off crush for the boy since Adam had joined the Ducks.

Jesse grinned as the Ducks stood at the Banks front door. He had had a fun time talking to Phoebe and he couldn't help but grin at the thought. Connie rang the doorbell and who should answer it but Phoebe.

"Hey, come on in, Adam's… doing something, not sure what." Phoebe stood back and the Ducks walked in.

They all sat in the lounge and listened to the commotion upstairs. Just as they heard the faint sound of a male groan, Esmeralda came pelting down the stairs with a large smile on her face. She was wearing her work clothes that consisted of jeans and a t-shirt. The t-shirt was white with short, dark green sleeves and the word 'Vibe' printed on the front in the same dark green.

"What's going on?" Fulton asked her.

"Yeah, we heard a groan, most likely from Adam. What have you been doing to him?" Portman added with a suggestive wink.

Esmeralda rolled her eyes at the Bash Brother's insinuation and answered, "He can't find any shirts."

"What did you do to them?" Phoebe asked her best friend suspiciously.

Esmeralda raised her hands in surrender. "Nothing, I swear. _Maria_ thought it would be funny to hide all his tops since he came down stairs this morning without one. I didn't do anything."

"Have you told him where they are?"

"No."

"Then you did do something."

"No, I didn't!" Esmeralda defended herself against Phoebe's accusations. "Telling him, would be doing something."

Phoebe rolled her eyes at her friend but couldn't think of a valid argument. Thankfully, Fulton made it so she didn't have to.

"Vibe? You work at Vibe?" the boy asked.

Esmeralda looked down at her shirt before answering, "Yeah, and I have to go before I miss my bus. If you must know, Banks' shirts are stuffed into Mr. Banks' file cabinet."

"I live a street over from Vibe," Fulton told her before frowning at her. "That's where I've seen you from! I go into the music shop all the time, you work there. I thought you looked familiar."

Esmeralda looked at him for a moment before replying, "Oh, yeah, I remember seeing you. Alright, gonna go. And, Bash Boy's, get your minds outta the gutter. Me and Banks are friends."

After Adam had found his shirts, with help from Phoebe who told him _where_ to find them, they went to the movies. On their way home, they decided to visit Esmeralda at work.

They walked into the music store to see her sorting CD's. Averman was the one to walk up to her.

"Hey, could you tell me were to find a picture of you in those jeans, I would like one for my room."

Esmeralda looked up in anger only to see who it was. When she did, she snorted and rolled her eyes. "Sorry, it costs two of your own eyeballs, no use for it if you can't see it."

"I can always get a friend to buy it for me," Averman argued good naturedly.

"Yeah, but it will still cost _your_ two eyeballs so they may as well keep it for themselves," Esmeralda joked fluidly.

Russ raised his hand. "I will."

Esmeralda giggled before walking passed the group to another genre and sorting that.

"Soooo, whatcha up to?" Terry asked, following her.

"Work, and if you guys are here to only annoy me, you can leave." Esmeralda smiled at them.

"Well that's not very nice, we might have to talk to your manager," Connie threatened.

"Okay," Esmeralda replied before calling, "Ace, some people want to talk to you because I refuse to give them my number."

A tall boy with curly blood-red hair and piercing blue eyes looked up from two rows over. The female Ducks let their jaws drop in shock, before melting at the handsome boy's appearance.

Ace smiled cheekily, obviously having heard the banter between the group. "Give them a picture of you in those jeans and they might not say anything to me." He then winked at Esmeralda who smiled in amusement. He walked off into the backroom before the group talked again.

"I like him," Averman said. "Alright, go get the camera."

"I think he likes you, Essi," Julie told the girl who was playfully shoving Averman.

"That's what Phoebe says." Esmeralda laughed as Averman played wounded.

"So? Do you like him?" Adam questioned, his eyes twinkling.

"Like I'm going to tell you!" Esmeralda exclaimed. "You'll go tell him either way."

Adam considered this for a moment before nodding and going to walk passed her in the back room. "Then I'll just go and tell him that you do."

"Don't you dare." Esmeralda giggled, putting her hands on Adam's chest to stop him. "Now get out and let me work." Laughing, she pushed Adam towards the exit and pointed for the other Ducks to go as well.

The Ducks grudgingly obliged and left with Averman shooting over his shoulder that he wanted the picture soon. Esmeralda coolly replied that it would end up to sticky if she gave him one before going back to her work.

_**Hope you liked it and it didn't seem too rushed. This is like my third update and I'm only halfway through my holidays. I might only update once more before school since I am going to my grandfathers and will probably have no internet there.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	9. I'm Allowed

_**I do not own the Ducks, thank you for reviews and I love them. The ending… sorry if I didn't do it justice but I'm not used to writing those kinds of scenes. Hope you enjoy.**_

There was only two weeks of holidays left and Phoebe, Esmeralda, Julie and Connie had been dragged shopping by Aimee and Jamie. The twins weren't to happy when they walked into the house to find Esmeralda and Adam sitting close together on the couch, laughing. They had only met Phoebe and Esmeralda freshman year and therefore didn't even know that Esmeralda and Adam had been friends.

"Essie, this will look great on you," Phoebe said, holding up a pleated, dark blue, mini-skirt and a denim, corset like top with sequence, white ribbon as straps and tying up the back. There was a zipper on the side which allowed the person to get into it and there was sequence, white flowers on it along with beads. The skirt was plain and cute but it suited the top perfectly, even though it wasn't a set.

Esmeralda chuckled and shook her head. "I'd look like an idiot."

"No, you wouldn't," Phoebe disagreed. "I think you'd look _hot_ and I bet my brother would agree."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes and blushed softly as Julie and Connie chuckled and Aimee made a grab for the clothes.

"Let me try those on," Aimee demanded.

"Sorry, Aimee, I don't think there's any in your size. Plus, Essie has the perfect legs for the skirt and you can't have to big a chest for the top and yours is too big." She turned to Esmeralda. "Come on; try it on before I drag you into the changing room."

"Fine," Esmeralda relented, grabbing the coat-hangers out of Phoebe's hand and stomping off to the changing room.

After a few minutes of waiting for Esmeralda to emerge from the changing room, Phoebe decided to call through the curtain to see what was taking so long. "Essie, are you alright? Do you need a different size?"

"No," Esmeralda said back. "It fits."

"Well show us!" Julie demanded.

Esmeralda grumbled but didn't pull open the hangers.

Phoebe rolled her eyes at her friend's insecurity and pulled open the curtain. Esmeralda stood there in the outfit. Phoebe was right! Esmeralda looked stunning.

"PHOEBE!!!!" Esmeralda yelled, trying to cover her self with her arms. She was dressed but she wasn't used to wearing clothes that showed off her form so well. She could wear short-shorts to rival Daisy Dukes with tank-tops but they weren't eye-catching in design.

"Essie, you look _hot!_" Connie told her.

Esmeralda blushed and looked very uncomfortable. "No I don't! I look like an idiot."

"Esmeralda McGill, no you do not!" Phoebe told her in a strong voice. "You look amazing and you are going to buy those clothes and wear them home."

Esmeralda and Phoebe must have gotten into the same argument every time they went shopping cause Esmeralda rolled her eyes and agreed, knowing it was a lost cause.

The girls spent the next three hours going from shop to shop. They found outfits for each of them to wear home and they tried on funny sunglasses in one shop.

"Check out these ones," Esmeralda said, turning around with a pair of love heart shaped ones.

"Aww," Phoebe cooed, "You should look at Adam with those on."

Esmeralda shoved Phoebe playfully as Aimee and Jamie glared at Esmeralda. Esmeralda looked at Phoebe over the glasses and smiled the smile Maria named her 'Devils innocence' smile. Meaning it was innocent looking but seductive at the same time. "Only if they were X-ray glasses." She then pushed the glasses back up with her index finger and started looking at hats.

"Adam doesn't like Jamie or Aimee so Essie and I have decided to make it sound like she and Adam are a couple,' Phoebe explained quietly to Connie and Julie.

The two girls just giggled and looked at the glasses.

"Oh my god, Connie, those glasses suit you," Jamie exclaimed, looking at the girl.

The brunette hockey player had just put on glasses with a dark blue, glittering frame. The lance was a lighter shade of blue.

Not long after that, the girls took their shopping and headed home, done for the day.

"He's so unreasonable. Why does he bother asking me things when there is not proper answer? …"

Adam followed the voice of Fulton, drifting out from his room. He wondered what had gotten into the Bash Brother. Turning into his room, he found Fulton standing, leaning against his desk, reading from a little, leather-bound, black book. Portman laid casually on Adam's bed and Terry sat on the floor, leaning back, against the bed.

"Guys, what are you doing?" Adam asked in confusion.

"Reading," Fulton asked, looking up from the book.

"Obviously," Adam agreed.

"Well, Terry here was bored, waiting for you to finish up helping Malinka and he felt like reading, so we went to look at the bookcase in the guest room to shut him up," Portman explained.

"But that's not one of our books," Adam told them, pointing at said book.

"We know," Fulton confessed, "But we want to know about the red marks on this page."

"Where did you find that?" Adam asked. "Is that McGill's?"

"Shut it, Banks," Portman demanded.

Fulton cleared his throat jokingly. "_He always asks if I want to be punished. There's no way out of it. If I say yes, he'll beat me, it I say no; he'll beat me! Even know my blood still pours from my bleeding cheek, staining these very pages. I wonder if it's to scar, I hope it won't…_"

"Stop!" Adam growled. "Whatever that is, stop reading it!"

"We're pretty sure it's a story that Essie's writing, it's believable," Terry tried to reassure him.

"Hey, guys, you should check out what we've got Julie and Connie wea…" Esmeralda stopped talking as she walking into Adams room. The shopping bags in her hands fell as she saw the book open in Fulton's hands. She shakily raised a hand to her mouth before the shock and fear on her face was replaced by another emotion.

The moment Adam looked over to Esmeralda, he had been speechless. Her new outfit had caused his mouth to go dry. "McGill, you look," his gaze wondered upwards and landed on her face, "Pissed."

Esmeralda stalked over to Fulton. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? Give that back." She snatched the book out of the frightened boy's hands and turned, her messy ponytail whipping around, and stomped out of the room, leaving her bags on the floor. Right before walking passed Adam though, she glared at him. "You're an asshole!"

Adam started running after her and flinched when he heard the front door slam shut. He wrenched open the door and followed the girl as she stormed down the street. "McGill, wait!"

Esmeralda ignored him and kept walking at a fast pace. She was fuming.

"Please," Adam begged, running up and grabbing Esmeralda's arm.

She just wrenched it out of his grip and kept walking. "No, I'm angry with you."

"Why?"

"Because I'm allowed to be!" Esmeralda growled.

"I didn't do anything, I swear."

"You just don't get it, do you?" Esmeralda spun around, startling the boy. "You don't get it!" she stated again, looking sad and lost.

"Well explain it to me!" Adam demanded, getting frustrated.

"This," Esmeralda held up the black book, "Is my diary! It has everything in it! Everything!" A look of absolute sorrow fell on Esmeralda's face. "It has all my secrets in it, things I wouldn't even told Phoebe. I tell her everything… but not! I… there are things I can't tell anyone. Because I was taught if you tell anyone your secrets, they'll use it against me. My dad and brother taught me that by the way they treat me and although I know Phoebe wouldn't do that, I still can't seem to trust her or anyone."

"But my diary?" Esmeralda kept going, her voice softer now, almost defeated. "Banks, how could you? Not only is it my secrets, it's humiliating. You and your friends were reading my diary like it was funny. What? Do you get a kick out of my suffering?"

"McGill, I swear, I didn't know. I walked in on them and they were reading, when I found out, I told them to stop. Please believe me!" Adam begged, his hands on Esmeralda's shoulders.

Esmeralda's resolve visibly dissolved but she still said, "No."

"Why not?" Adam asked.

"Because I'm still mad at you!" Esmeralda pointed at him and screwed up her face.

"You're mad at me?"

"I'm allowed!"

"And you swore earlier?"

"Yes!"

"And you're wearing a very sexy outfit?"

"Ye… I am?"

"Yes!"

"Okay! So?"

"You're so different!"

"Excuse me?"

"You're so different! You've grown and you are more… confident and outspoken. Not to mention you look hot as hell in that outfit!"

Esmeralda blushed profusely. She could be so insecure sometimes. "What's your point?" Adam was looking at her with the weirdest look in her eyes.

The truthful answer was "I've never wanted you more" but Adam just shrugged and said, "Just, you're different."

"Is that a bad thing?" Esmeralda asked, unsure.

"No!"

"Okay," she said slowly, nodding her head. "I'm still mad at you."

"Of course," Adam agreed, rolling his eyes.

Esmeralda turned around and stalked back to the Banks house, more like manor, looking similar to a puffed up bird. When she, and Adam who had followed close behind, got back, they went to Adam's room. Esmeralda found all three boys looking guilt for angering her. She went up to Fulton and slapped his, hard.

"I deserved that," he said, putting a hand on his red cheek.

"Yep," Esmeralda agreed, going up to the other two boys. Both of them didn't stop her from slapping them too. Then she grabbed her bags and walked towards the door. "I'm still mad at you!" she said to Adam as she walked out and went to the guest room.

Adam nodded in agreement.

"You two look like Barbie dolls." Charlie laughed, looking at the two female ducks wearing flowery sundresses they had bought on their shopping day with Phoebe and Esmeralda. Admittedly all the guys thought they looked stunning but they couldn't help tearing them a new one.

"Shut up! They look beautiful," Phoebe defended her two new friends. She was dressed in her new white, strapless sundress.

No one noticed that Jesse's eyes had widened in shock. "Wow!"

"What?!" Phoebe asked, fearing there was something wrong with her appearance.

"You look great," Jesse confessed.

"Thank you," Phoebe said with a smile. "So what are you lot up to?"

"Well, since we only have two more days till school and tomorrow we'll mainly be unpacking our stuff into the dorms, we're having a movie night," Adam told his sister.

Phoebe nodded her head before looking up at her brother. "You do realize there's a group of girls upstairs in my room that would happily crash the party."

Adam sighed and walked past his now grinning sister. He walked up stairs and into Phoebe's room. There were only three girls in the room. Maria, who was sitting on the bed, up near the headboard, Esmeralda who was lying on her stomach on the bed and a dark skinned girl Adam knew to be Kristy who was sitting on the edge of the bed on the opposite side to Maria. All three girls were giggling at something and in their pajamas.

"You three girls want to watch some movies with the Ducks instead of crashing it later?" he asked.

The three girls looked up and agreed.

"So what are we watching?" Kristy asked after being introduced.

"_Chicago_, _Interview with a Vampire_ and then _When a Stranger Calls_," Ken answered, "The girls chose _Chicago_."

"Good choice. Beautiful girls, locked up together and wearing skimpy outfits," Maria agreed.

After that, they all changed into their pajamas and started picking their spots to sit. Kristy and Maria made themselves comfortable under a blanket, Jesse shyly sat next to Phoebe, Fulton and Tammy cuddled up on an armchair and Adam found himself being kicked off the lounge by two boys nicknames 'the Bash Brothers' (Portman and Kenny) and sitting next to Esmeralda, who thankfully had short shorts on with her pajama top.

The boys found they actually liked Chicago but only a few, (meaning Adam, Jesse and Fulton) agreed after being coerced but the girls closest to them.

The next one was interesting but slightly scary, proven by Esmeralda's actions. Esmeralda turned her head into Adam's chest as the 'should been slain' vampire, played by Tom Cruise, appeared in the doorway. Adam's arm had already found its way around Esmeralda's waist, so all he could think to do was take her hand and stroke the back of it with his thumb.

"Oh, no, no, no," Esmeralda whispered. When Adam looked down at her strangely, she explained, "He's going to go after the little girl. She's so cute, evil but cute, she can't die."

Adam just chuckled and they continued to watch the movie. All the way through it, Esmeralda was playing with Adam's fingers absentmindedly. There was something very intermit about the way she intertwined their fingers before running hers down his palm and doing it all again. It sent shivers through Adam's hand, spreading all through his body. Using the thumb on his hand around her waist, Adam drew circles on the skin of her back, her shirt having been ruffled by her moving closer to Adam. Adam could feel Esmeralda's skin quivering under his touch.

The last one was the scariest of them all. Phoebe and Connie actually screamed at one point and Maria and Kristy were huddled together, peaking over the top of their blankets. This one wasn't as scary for Esmeralda seeing as she wasn't afraid of a little girl getting hurt, but she was cuddled into Adam.

As the movie drew on, Esmeralda and Adam noticed that the others had fallen asleep. The two couldn't help but chuckle as they noticed Tammy and Fulton, and Phoebe and Jesse sitting snuggly with each other, respectfully. The humor died, however, when Adam removed his hand from Esmeralda's and started to stroke the scar on her wrist still visible in the extremely low light.

"Stop that," Esmeralda begged in a whisper, looking as Adam's nimble fingers traced the scar.

"Why?"

"Be…because, please."

"No, why did you do it?" Adam clarified, looking at what his fingers were doing like Esmeralda was.

"Because," Esmeralda sighed, "I couldn't handle it. My brother and father would soon have no reason to hold back on their beatings. They knew Phoebe wasn't brave enough to stop them. And I didn't see anyone needing me around, so…"

Adam finally stopped and looked at her. He found her looking back, their noses almost brushing. "Not true, I need you around, I've always needed you around," Adam confessed.

"Then why was it so easy for you to leave? Why didn't you find a way of staying?" Esmeralda's face was full of the pain she normally hid so well.

"I knew that you'd be worse off if I stayed." Adam cupped her cheek and moved closer. His words were no more then breaths. "I couldn't stand the thought of you hurt because of me."

"It would have been worth it," whispered Esmeralda before her mouth was covered by Adam's.

Adam pulled Esmeralda closer as Esmeralda slid her hands up his chest, stopping to cup Adam's neck. The kisses started out small and sweet like the ones they shared at the hospital years ago, but then Esmeralda sucked Adam's bottom lip between hers and gave it a nibble before letting go. Adam responded by running his tongue along her bottom lip. Esmeralda trembled in delight as Adam's tongue massaged hers and explored her mouth. For over an hour the two sat, trying to convey their thoughts and feelings without actually admitting them with irreversible words. Adam's hand had left Esmeralda's face and was placed on Esmeralda's side. If he moved his hand up, then both of them would stop and know they had gone to far, but as long as the hand stayed on an innocent placing, neither of them comprehended what could possible be wrong with sitting in a crowded room, full of their sleeping friends, making out.

The movie had long ended and had restarted since they hadn't bothered to turn it off.

_**I don't think Esmeralda's mad anymore! Hope you liked it and I'd love a review.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	10. The Waking

_**Hope you like. I don't own the Ducks and reviews are lovely.**_

_**If any readers know anything about American driving tests, such as, how old you are when you go for the test and how long after the test till you get your license. I think it's different in America then Australia.**_

The next day Adam woke to find Esmeralda had vacated his arms. A few people were already awake and obviously Esmeralda was among them. As he got up, he felt a kink in his neck from the way he had been sleeping. He tried to massage it out as he walked into the kitchen. When he entered the room, he found Phoebe, Esmeralda, Charlie, Jesse and Averman making breakfast.

"Hey," Phoebe said cheerfully, spotting her brother in the doorway.

Adam returned the greeting before looking at Esmeralda. She was drinking a glass of orange juice but seemed to feel his eyes on her for she looked up as she sipped the beverage. She looked into Adam's eyes and read the words: it meant nothing.

None of the others seemed to notice because they started rudely requesting them to start helping. They of course, did, whilst trying to keep their distance from each other. Adam couldn't make eye contact with Esmeralda again. He couldn't bear to see it was nothing because he thought otherwise. It felt like some animal was claying the inside of his stomach, causing him to bleed internally. He knew that there wasn't really an animal in his stomach and he wasn't really bleeding, but it still hurt. It was like she rejected him then gave him a hug, saying they'd still be friends.

Matters were made worse by the fact that Esmeralda didn't seem to be paying attention to her surroundings, therefore didn't notice Averman when he fell back, knocking Esmeralda and causing her to be launched forward. Acting on instinked, Adam turned and caught her. She looked up at him in utter shock before leaping out of his arms and leaving the room hastily.

Adam dropped his head and went back to cooking eggs. He ignored the confused looks he was getting from the other people in the room and just focused on what he was doing. He tried not to think about Esmeralda's reacting. Do I disgust her? She honestly can't be repulsed by me, she kissed me back.

When the breakfast was done, Phoebe went to tell Esmeralda as Charlie went to wake everyone up and Adam, Averman and Jesse dished out the food onto plates. Adam sat down at the dining table as everyone else came in to get their food but found he couldn't eat. He wasn't hungry and he felt rather sick. Instead, he just played with his food and hoped no-one would notice and that Esmeralda would just remain quiet during breakfast.

"Essi said she's not hungry," Phoebe said, coming into the room. "She's just going to finish packing the last of her stuff."

As Adam pretended to eat, he noticed Phoebe and Charlie shooting him questioning looks. Deciding not to put up with it, he excused himself from the table and put his plate in the sink. He figured he'd check if he had everything packed, seeing as he knew they'd be heading off soon. They were going to stay in the dorms tonight after all so he wanted to make sure everything was ready. Also, it gave him something to preoccupy his mind and get him away from everyone. Mainly a brunette girl.

Esmeralda woke up slowly. The haziness that covered her mind didn't seem to want to go away. As she started to clear her mind, she became aware to the fact that there was an arm around her waist and another resting on her leg. Opening her eyes warily, she found her head was on a muscular chest. A chest that belonged to her friend's older brother, the boy she had stayed up late kissing.

He was leaning against the lounge with his head at an angle that didn't look all that comfortable. If he was snoring, Esmeralda couldn't hear it over Dean who was sleeping loudly on the lounge. The movie didn't help with the sound either, it was still playing at the noise level it had been last night, seeing as neither her nor Adam had turned it off the night before.

Esmeralda shook her head at Kristy and Maria who were sitting oddly, propped up against an armchair with Kristy's head in the croak of Maria's neck. Jesse and Phoebe were no better, all though they didn't look as though they were almost falling sideways like Kristy and Maria. They were laying down facing each other with their hands almost brushing and their body's close, but not touching. So cute.

Moving carefully, Esmeralda slipped out of Adam's arms and went into the kitchen to get a drink. When she entered, she found Averman and Charlie already poring themselves orange juice.

"Can I have a glass?" Esmeralda asked with a dry throat.

Averman kindly poured her a drink before Charlie asked about breakfast.

"Don't look at me, I'm not cooking. Lets go wake Phoebe up, she can help us." Putting her glass down, Esmeralda re-entered the living room, this time turning off the movie, and walked over to her friend. Kneeling down beside her, Esmeralda started poking Phoebe, trying to wake her. When that didn't work, Esmeralda stole the pillow she and Jesse were using, effectively waking the both of them.

"Whaz goin on?" the boy asked groggily.

"Sorry, Jesse, we wanted Phoebe to help make breakfast but the lazy wouldn't wake up so I stole her pillow… which was also yours."

"Thanks a lot," Phoebe murmured sarcastically.

"You're welcome, now get up," Esmeralda ordered, whacking Phoebe with the pillow before taking it into the kitchen with her.

"Evil women," Phoebe muttered, causing Jesse to chuckle.

Esmeralda was fine until Adam woke up. He walked in and looked at her with eyes that said: it meant nothing, before helping with breakfast. She didn't pay much attention, seeing as she was busy trying not to show any emotions towards the incident. This caused her to be knocked by someone, straight into Adam. He caught her and when she looked at him, her heart gave a frightening and painful thump. She didn't even make excuses, she just ran from the room and up to the guest room she was staying in.

She couldn't handle it, why did she kiss him… or did he kiss her? She couldn't tell, it was like they both kissed each other. But why? She knew why she did it, she couldn't help herself but why did he kiss her back? He clearly didn't like her. It was plain by the way he acted. Maybe she was just practice, not wanting to be rusty when he got a girlfriend he figured he'd kiss her to make sure he was still a great kisser… which he was!

She heard Phoebe coming down the hall and started busying herself with 'packing' even though she had finished packing. When Phoebe came in, she quickly told her she wasn't hungry and she was going to pack. Esmeralda didn't even give the blonde a chance to question her about her behavior. She just kept packing.

She only stopped busying herself with the room when she felt Adam's presence at the door. Turning, she went to ask the boy why he was there but…

Adam was pacing his room like a lion caged and extremely furious. He wasn't furious exactly, more confused and annoyed. He couldn't work it out. Why had Esmeralda kissed him last night if she didn't have any feelings for him? Or did he kiss her? He didn't know. One thing he did know was that he had to find out if she was truly disgusted in him.

His mind set, Adam left his room and walked the short distance to Esmeralda's. She was fixing her room so it was neat, and tidy, thankfully already changed into an outfit other then her pajama's, but she quickly stopped and turned. When she saw Adam in the door, she went to say something but Adam cut her off by stepping forward and placing his hand on the back of her neck before kissing her.

Adam crushed his lips to hers, shocking her for a moment. She tried weakly to break away, not wanting to be used by him, but she found she couldn't. Not because he was using his strength to stop her, but because she was just too weak to want to push him away.

She returned the kiss and it looked to be a repeat of the night before, kissing for an hour, until a thought popped into Esmeralda's head.

He's using you. He will probably kiss the twins when you're not around.

Believing this thought, Esmeralda stiffened, and accidentally bit Adam's lower lip, drawing blood. The boy leaped away with a yelp. He brought his fingers to the inside of his lip and saw the blood. He then looked at Esmeralda with more anger then she had ever seen in his eyes before.

"I repulse you that much?! Why the hell did you kiss me in the first place if you find me so revolting?" Adam yelled at her, thankfully not loud enough for it to travel.

Esmeralda was too shocked to reply and she let him storm out of the room. When she had finally recovered, she closed the door forcefully and lent against it before sliding to the floor. She sat there, trying to choke back tears.

She didn't know how long she sat there crying, but she stopped when Phoebe knocked on the door she lent against. Esmeralda jumped up and ran to the bathroom as Phoebe entered the room. She splashed water on her face to wash away the tears.

"Essi, what's wrong?" Phoebe asked, walking into the on-suite and noticing the redness to her friend's eyes.

"Nothing."

"Essi…"

"Can we go? Phoebe, can we please go?" Esmeralda begged her friend, fresh tears going down her face.

"Okay, where?" Phoebe agreed.

"School, we'll leave early. I don't care if I have to take a bus instead of Kristy driving us."

"I think Kristy will go early with us. Maria was planning to help us anyway so I don't see why she wouldn't agree to go," Phoebe assured her friend, putting a calming hand on her shoulder. Esmeralda just nodded mutely before washing her face again. Phoebe didn't comment she simply left to talk to Kristy and Maria.

They had everything in the car in twenty minutes tops. After they had everything away in the car, Phoebe, Esmeralda – who didn't look as though she had been crying -, Kristy and Maria, who was spending the day with Kristy, went back inside to say goodbye.

"Why are you leaving so early?" Julie asked, hugging Phoebe.

"We want to get a head start on unpacking. No big-e," Kristy lied. She knew that Esmeralda was upset but she didn't know why and didn't want to tell anyone encase Esmeralda didn't want them to know.

"Ohh, but you lot are fun!" Goldberg whined, hugging Esmeralda.

The Maria, Phoebe and Esmeralda hugged all the Ducks as Kristy just said goodbye (seeing as she had just met them) but both Phoebe and Charlie - who had been watching Esmeralda and Adam closely since the breakfast scene - noticed that Esmeralda didn't hug Adam and Adam didn't hug Esmeralda. They simply avoided each other.

They both pushed it to the back of their minds for now as they continued with the goodbyes. Phoebe instead tried not to blush as Jesse drew her into his arms in a hug. Although Jesse was Adams friend it wouldn't stop him from turning into the over-protective brother. She pulled back and gave Jesse a shy smile and a soft goodbye before turning. When she turned, she saw Esmeralda trying, and failing, to hide an amused smile.

"Ready?" Phoebe asked, glaring at her friend to make her stop smiling.

The three other girls agreed and said one last quick goodbye before walking out to the car. Phoebe's attempt to distract the girls from what they saw by making them think about leaving didn't work. The moment they were out of the Banks driveway, the girls started on her.

"You should have seen your face." Maria laughed from the front seat.

"Shut up," Phoebe snapped.

"More like you should have seen Jesse's face," Esmeralda corrected Maria cheerfully. All three girls laughed again.

"Well at least you're feeling better," Phoebe stated, trying to draw the attention away from herself.

"Yeah," Esmeralda muttered, looking out the window at the passing scenery. "Can you turn up the music?"

"What did my brother do?" Phoebe asked quietly. Although she had asked it quietly and although Kristy had turned up the music like Esmeralda asked, the girls in the front seats still heard the question and were waiting for the answer.

"Nothing, just, never mind, Phoeb's," Esmeralda mumbled, dropping her eyes.

Phoebe didn't push it. She knew Esmeralda would tell her when they got to the dormitory and she asked again. Esmeralda tended to tell her everything and she knew it was the presents of Kristy and Maria that was keeping her tight lipped.

"Banks, what's up?"

"Nothing!"

"Bullshit, Cake-eater."

It was mid-afternoon and the Ducks were back at Eden Hall. Portman and Fultan, ever being the procrastinators, had decided to help Charlie annoy answers out of Adam instead of unpack. Charlie had told them what he had noticed and they had been all for finding out what happened.

"Adam, tell us what's wrong. We know there's a reason why the girls left so early and we know it involves you and Essi," Charlie pressured Adam kindly, as he put clothes away.

"Just drop it!" Adam snapped as he glumly put away his own clothes.

"See, your attitude makes us have to know," Portman told him lazily from were he was spread out on Adam's bed with his hands behind his head. "Come on, Banks, you never snap at us."

"Well you lot are annoying, it's about time I snapped at you," Adam retorted calmly with a bitter edge to his words.

"Adam, tell us! Now!" Fulton demanded in a final tone.

Adam sighed and dropped the t-shirt he was holding into the draw. "It's complicated." Adam dropped his head and focused on keeping his voice steady.

"Well we're not idiots, try us," Fulton told him in the same final tone.

Adam didn't lift his eyes and instead placed his hands on the dresser, the muscles in his back tightening in anger. "God, she fucking pisses me off!" His friends were shocked at his use of language but didn't interrupt. They knew who he was talking about. "She's just… complicated."

"Complicated, how?" Portman asked, sitting up.

Adam closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts. "One minute she's acting like she likes me and next, she's acting like she doesn't."

"Did you two get into another fight?" Charlie questioned his friend.

A hollow laugh left the blonds' mouth. "I wish! The fights I'm used to. We used to fight all the time. No, this knew McGill, just gets to me."

The boys didn't question him more. Whilst they didn't know what happened between the two, they didn't need to know, all they knew was that what ever happened hurt Adam badly.

The room was silent beside the soft sound of the two girls unpacking. Phoebe hadn't questioned Esmeralda yet. Instead, she had been mulling things over in her mind. Both her best friend and her brother were hurt by something. She had spent years with the two of them fighting, laughing and always having a secret understanding about one enough. She knew there was an odd relationship between them.

"Esmeralda, do you… care about my brother?" Phoebe asked tentatively, not looking at her friend.

"No," Esmeralda growled, throwing a t-shirt into the draw haphazardly. Her breathing became slightly erratic and she refused to look at her friend.

Phoebe knew her well enough to know she was fighting tears. Next second, her friend turned and dropped to the floor. She drew her knees up to her chest, leaning against her bed and Phoebe say the silent tears making their way down her friends face.

"Liar!" Phoebe said softly, getting a weak, wet smile off her friend. She went over and sat next to Esmeralda, putting her arm around her. "What's the matter?"

"Last night, Adam and I were the only ones still up and we were talking and then we were kissing," Esmeralda confessed. Phoebe made no comment. "The next day, I looked at him and I knew he just didn't care. I was practice for him. Didn't want to be rusty when he got his next girlfriend." Esmeralda had to stop talking as her throat closed up with tears.

"No, Essi, no." Phoebe held onto Esmeralda's shoulders and made her look at her. "Adam would never do that to you, and practice? For what? Adam has never had a girlfriend! You know my brother; he wouldn't do that to you."

Esmeralda shook her head. "Yes he would. After breakfast, he came into my room and kissed me again. A voice said he was just using me and I freaked and accidently bit him and he got so angry and yelled at me. I don't get it! I don't get him! What does he want from me?"

Phoebe knew the answer to that. What Adam wanted from Esmeralda was her! That was it, plain and simple, but Phoebe couldn't tell her that. Adam had too. Thankfully, it was a rhetorical question. "Anyway,' Esmeralda went on, wiping the tears away and smiling at her friend. "Are you going to make a move on Jesse?"

Phoebe went red and ducked her head before mumbling, "Maybe." Her face growing hotter when Esmeralda laughed.

_**Hope you liked it and didn't have to wait too long.**_


	11. Dirty Humor, Not Dirty Talk

_**I have seen the phone mentioned in this chapter and think it's really awesome, so I decided to give it to Esmeralda. She seems like the type to have it. It's in Material Girls, but I might not have explained it the best.**_

It didn't take long for the Ducks to settle into their old routine. They went to classes, they went to hockey practice then they talked about how evil Coach Orion was, since he always left them half dead.

"He's trying to kill us!" Goldberg exclaimed dramatically after their third practice. He collapsed onto the bench in the changing room, taking off his jersey has he did.

"Hey, he's gotten better since freshman year, at least his more relaxed and didn't put Banks on Varsity until we were all on it," Charlie defended the coach, all the tension from last year gone.

"Got to love him for that!" Adam agreed with a smile.

Goldberg and a few others grumbled a little more about how evil their coach was before they left the changing room and headed to lunch. They didn't have to worry about big Varsity jocks anymore, seeing as they were the Varsity hockey team now, they only had to put up with preppy snobs that believed the Ducks didn't belong at Eden Hall. Unfortunately for Adam, Jamie and Aimee weren't in the preppy snob group, they were 'Adam's Number One Fans'.

"Hi, Adam," the two girls said in unison.

"Hi, girls." Adam sighed as the Ducks, minus Connie and Julie looked at him in question, only now meeting the twins. "Ducks, this is Aimee and Jamie, girls, these are the Ducks."

"Yeah, hi," one of the girls said uncaring, neither of them looking at the Ducks. "So anyway, Adam," the one speaking leaned closer to the sitting Adam, almost pushing the front of her hip into his shoulder as her twin stood close to her, batting her eyes. "Jamie and I were thinking, you're really smart…"

"And, we could use with getting our grades up…"

"So you should _tutor_ us!" Aimee finished suggestively.

"Sorry," Adam started, before pointing to Aimee then Jamie with a frown, "Jamie, Aimee…"

"I'm Aimee, she's Jamie," Aimee corrected in annoyance that Adam couldn't tell them apart.

"Sorry," Adam apologized with an air that said he couldn't care less. "But I have training and I can't let my own grades drop. I don't have time to waste."

"Well, we weren't intending on learning anything… school worthy," Jamie admitted.

"Don't let Essi ever hear you say that to Adam," Julie warned.

"I don't think she'd appreciate it," Connie finished, mimicking the twins speech.

The twins scowled at the two Ducks as Adam looked at all four girls in confusion, wondering what they knew that he didn't.

"It's not like their married," Aimee defended.

The male Ducks all shared a questioning look before looking back at the argument.

"Aren't you a lovely friend," Julie growled at the two identical looking girls.

"What she doesn't know, won't hurt her," Jamie told the blonde girl with narrowed eyes.

The Ducks were surprised that no-one in the crowded dining hall had noticed the argument heating up at the Duck table, but then, the girls were keeping their voices at a deadly civilized level. Aimee had thankfully moved away from Adam a little, allowing him to sit comfortably, although he was confused.

"Well, she'll find out in a minute," Connie assured, hitting Esmeralda's ID on her phone. The mobile was on loud speaker, allowing the whole table to here the dial tone. After a few rings, someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Essi, hey, Aimee and Jamie are having the most interesting conversation with Adam. He doesn't seem to care about it but you know those girls, not to good with their studies and now we know why," Connie said in the direction of the phone.

"Oh really, and what, might I ask, are they saying?" Esmeralda's voice came out of the phone, sounding amused.

"Nothing, Essi, just mucking around," Jamie lied, trying to save face.

"Connie?" Esmeralda questioned.

"They wanted tutoring in area's _not school worthy_, if you catch the drift," Julie answered.

"WHAT?!" Esmeralda yelled, making Adam wince. She truly sounded hurt and angry and Adam wondered what had made her voice sound that way. He was still hurt by her rejection but he didn't want to see or hear her in any form of pain.

"They're lying, we swear," Jamie said.

"Yeah, right," Esmeralda agreed, not sounding as though she believed them at all. She sounded close to tears. Adam felt his heart give a painful thump at the thought of tears in Esmeralda's brown eyes.

He had had enough of the twins causing Esmeralda pain. "Aimee, Jamie, piss off, will you?" The two girls looked indignant before scurrying off. "McGill, they're gone. Now tell me what's going on!"

The moment Adam had finished speaking, laughter issued from the mobile in Connie's hand. "Julie, Connie, can you tell them, I have to go before my friends do something stupid. Bye, guys."

"Bye, Essi," the two female Ducks said before hanging up.

"Explain!" Guy demanded looking completely lost.

"When we were out shopping, Phoebe decided to do Adam a favor, knowing the twins would annoy you at Eden. She enlisted Esmeralda's help," Connie started to explain. "All she really did was make a few comments when out shopping like: 'Adam would think this looks good on you', and 'where did you and Adam get to the other day'. Nothing bad, it just sounded like you two had a thing going."

"The twins believed it once Phoebe said the totally preposterous statement: 'did you enjoy sleeping in my brother's bed?' like Essi would be in your bed!" Julie finished.

"Actually, Banks told us how he woke her up one morning when he got up early like most preppy's, so she stole his bed," Portman told the group, getting a withering glare from Adam.

"Oh, well, in that context it doesn't sound bad but how Phoebe said it, it sounded like you two slept in the same bed together… all night." Connie believed Portman.

"You wouldn't say!" Charlie exclaimed with false shock. Adam just turned his glare on his best friend.+

"Oof."

"Essi, you're so clumsy!" Phoebe rolled her eyes at her friend who was on the ground. They were in dance class and practicing a new dance. As always with new dances, Esmeralda fell over. This time they had been trying to get the steps right with a particular spin. When Esmeralda got the steps wrong, she spin back around and tried again, resulting in her tripping over her own feet and landing flat on her butt.

It felt as though her internal organs had jumped up and slammed into her brain before falling back in to place, she now had a terrible headache. "Ohh, stop being mean and help me up!" Esmeralda instructed in a whinny voice. She held out her hand and it wasn't Phoebe that helped the brunette girl up. It was one of the boys in the class. This one was tall and a little on the lanky side with watery brown hair. "Thanks, Elliot."

"No problem, Esmeralda." Elliot then went back to learning his part as Esmeralda turned to scold her friend.

"What the hell? You just laugh at me instead of helping me?!"

"Sorry, Essi, you know what I find really funny though? The fact that no one in the class looked around when they heard you fall, they just know it's you," Phoebe pointed out.

"Everyone knows I fall over at least ones when first practicing a dance," Esmeralda admitted, practicing the move again and getting it right. Ones she was finished the quick spin; she grabbed her head as she felt light headed. "Ohh, head spins."

"Essi?" Phoebe asked in concern, steadying her friend. "Essi, go sit down."

Esmeralda did as instructed and when the teacher came over to scold her, she told her the truth about her headache. The teacher was sympathetic and let her sit down for the rest of the class. When they sat down for lunch, 'Have A Nice Day' started playing.

"Essi, your ass is ringing," a honey-blond haired, green eyes boy informed his female friend.

"Really, Leo, I would have never guessed," Esmeralda replied sarcastically before pulling her mobile out of her back pocket and answering it. "Hello?"

Connie spoke on the other end, something about the twins. It didn't take much for Esmeralda to catch on and play the part of the hurt friend and girlfriend. She was talking a drama workshop outside of school after all. When Adam spoke, she did feel a plunge of sadness and guilt. She had angered Adam all because she had thought he would be the type of boy to use her. She shouldn't have. She knew Adam, he might be a lot older, but he wasn't much different to the old Adam.

The girl noticed that her friends, who consisted of Phoebe, Jesse, Terry and Leo, were barley holding themselves back from yelling out stupid comments to the people on the other end of the phone so Esmeralda quickly said goodbye and hung up.

"Who was that?" Terry asked, trying to ignore his brother who was talking to Phoebe and both of them laughing at something.

"The Ducks, apparently Aimee and Jamie have already started to make moves on Banks and Connie and Julie decided to save him," Esmeralda informed him before picking up her sandwich.

Phoebe caught on to the tail end of the conversation and laughed. "So Adam finally knows about that, does he?"

"Is that the whole, 'Essi's supposedly dating Cake-eater' thing?" Jesse asked.

"Cake-eater?" Leo questioned with a frown, having only started hanging out with the Hall brothers since the year started.

"Long story," Terry warned.

"Anyway," Esmeralda interjected, turning the conversation back to the main one. "Yeah, that's what we're talking about. Connie and Julie decided to rattle Jamie and Aimee with it."

"I can't believe you willingly agreed to act the part of Cat-eaters girlfriend, you two hate each other," Terry exclaimed in disbelief.

"I don't hate him, actually, we used to have fun, hanging out when we were little," Esmeralda confessed, with a small smile at the memory.

"Yeah," Phoebe agreed. "You used to call him Alfalfa."

"Oh my god!" Esmeralda gasped before laughing and smiling. "I totally forgot about that."

"Alfalfa?" Terry and Jesse both asked.

"From 'The Little Rascals'. Banks always reminded me of Alfalfa," Esmeralda confessed with a shrug.

"Now that you mention it, he does," Jesse agreed, making the occupants of the table laugh.+

Esmeralda sighed. She was in her empty dorm room, lying on her bed, bored. Finally finding the boredom too much, Esmeralda grabbed her mobile and flipped it open, making it circle on its hinge and settle with a screen and a keypad. Not thinking of anything to do on the phone, Esmeralda sighed and closed it. She then lent over and dug into the second draw of her nightstand. Grasping what she wanted, Esmeralda pulled it out of the draw.

It was an old, black diary, simply a battered version of the diary she was using this year. Flicking it open, Esmeralda removed a photo from its pages and looked at it, placing the book beside her on the bed covers. She laid back down and stared at the photo as she held it above her. With an annoyed grown, she put the picture on top of the book and picked up her mobile, flipping it open again.+

Adam flopped onto his bed after another brutal, yet undoubtedly fun practice, doing as he had done everyday for the last week, trying not to think of Esmeralda. He missed her; no other sorrowful feelings towards her were in Adam. No anger or annoyance, or hatred, just a yearning to see her, or talk to her. The brief contact through loud speaker a few days ago wasn't enough. That wasn't directed at him and they had barely spoken.

Just as he wondered if he should drive to Cutlan on the up coming Sunday and talk to her, seeing as they had a match on Saturday, his mobile beeped and lit up, indicating he had just received a message. Hoping it was his brother, seeing as he hadn't talked to him in a while, Adam reached over and grabbed the mobile off the desk. Pressing open on the message, he was shocked to see it was a number he didn't recognize. It said:

_**Banks, you're not mad at me, are you? – McGill.**_

Adam looked at it in shock before quickly saving the number under Esmeralda and replying.

_**McGill, I'm not mad, I was just hurt. – Banks.**_

He pressed sent and sat the devise on his stomach, waiting for a reply. He didn't have to wait long and Adam felt a smile spread on his lips as he opened the message.

_**I didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident. I don't know why but I got it in my head that you were only kissing me for practice. You know, not wanting to be rusty for a new girlfriend. Sorry for biting you! – McGill.**_

Adam read over this message twice before replying to it. He couldn't believe Esmeralda had thought such a thing. He would never do that to her, he would never think about using her.

_**McGill, I could never do that to you, plus I don't have a girlfriend, I've never had one. It's alright that you bit me, always knew you were a vampire, and it's healed up, not 2 mention you didn't drink my blood so I can still go out in daylight. – Banks.**_

Adam chuckled as he pressed send, imagining what Esmeralda's reply would be. He didn't both putting it on his stomach, seeing how quickly Esmeralda replied to his last message.

_**Ohhh, so you're a bachelor and you just felt… I'm stopping there because I don't want to know what you were feeling when you decided to kiss me. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that doesn't date. Yeey, I'm a vampire! Screw being a Princess, I want to be a vampire! That's my fav saying. And why don't you want to be one to? You can be a sexy Buffy the Vamp Slayer kinda vampire. – McGill.**_

He chuckled at most of her message but when he got to the 'sexy vampire' part, he couldn't help but blush. He also noticed that she had preppy text like him. They were both taught proper grammar and punctuation and couldn't help but write that way in everything, even text messaging.

_**Yes, McGill, I'm a bachelor, *snorts* and I wasn't feeling what you obviously think I was feeling. I just found you very… kissable, twice. Lol, how about a vampire princess? Oh, you think I'm sexy? Perhaps I should ask you what you were feeling when we kissed. If it's anything fun… I could use the practice. – Banks.**_

Adam sent the message thinking of how he would give anything to see Esmeralda's face when she read the message. Once again, Adam marveled at her texting speed.

_**Banks, are you getting sick of your hand as your only companion? I'm sure Aimee and Jamie will help you, two for one special. A Vampire Princess? Now there's an idea… will you bow to me? And. Banks, you would be… not as repulsive as you already are if you were a vampire. You could be my slave, I'll happily bite you again. And I wasn't feeling anything when we kissed, but thinking back, I feel nausea. And you're not practicing on me! – McGill.**_

Adam could practically read Esmeralda's laughter that she no doubt sounded as she texted the message. It radiated off of it. Shaking his head, Adam replied, deciding to ignore the fact that the messages could easily turn to dirty humor with his reply.

_**Not really into Aimee and Jamie, blondes aren't my type, always been into brunettes truthfully. Two for one? Yeah, annoyances! No, McGill, I will not bow to you, but I'll happily let you get on your knees to me. Lol, and I'm not repulsive, if I was, you wouldn't have played with my fingers on the Movie Night like you did, or quiver under my touch. Did it send pleasant shivers up your spine? I bet it had something to do with the fact that it was me touching you. Me!? Your slave? Never, and the only reason you feel nausea is because you crave me. ;) – Banks.**_

Adam sent the message and immediately thought he should have read over it first, to make sure that it was dirty humor, not dirty talk, but, too late!

_**Funny, blonds my type, brunettes make me think of my brother and that's just wrong! Lol, I find them annoying to. I'm choosing not to see the dirty side to the 'let you get on your knees' bit because Phoebe sometimes reads my msg's and I don't think she would like my reply. Quiver? God you're more preppy then me! As for me 'quivering', I was cold, it may have been the fact that you had your cold hand on the skin of my hip. You are my slave, you will bend to my will when I ask you to, don't deny it. I don't crave you, you crave me. – McGill.**_

Adam decided not to mention how right Esmeralda was about the craving. He did crave her, and truthfully, he would do what ever she asked, but he wasn't going to admit it. Instead, he played along with their usual banter.

_**Lol, now you know why I like brunettes better… NO, MCGILL, not because I like your brother!!! I know how you think. Blondes remind me of all three of my sisters and, well, yeah, wrong! Phoebe not liking what you wanted to text about the 'on the knees' thing… kinky, it must be dirty, ;). Preppy's have some rebellious times, if you catch my drift, and cold? Is that why you cuddled up to me so much, you were cold and wanted my body heat? I have ideas now. I will deny that I am your slave, because I'm not! You'll have to prove it! – Banks.**_

He did read this message over and decided it was funny so sent it. He couldn't wait for the girls answer. He was finding himself letting his laughter ringing through the empty dormitory, something he normally didn't do when he was reading messages.

_**Lol, you do know me, that's exactly what I was thinking of writing until you so 'capitally' stated otherwise. Yes it was dirty and I'm not telling you what it was… you seem to have enough naughty ideas in your head. (Preppy's having rebellious times is one of those ideas.) And no, that is not why I was 'cuddling' into you. When watching a scary movie, I tend to cuddle into what ever's closest, a pillow last time. See a pillow could have replaced you! NOT DIRTY!!! And I know what will make you stop denying that you are my slave….**_

The message ended there and Adam wondered what was going on. But then his inbox said there was another message just sent. Exiting out of the one he just read, he saw that the second message was also from Esmeralda. Curious, he opened the message. It was only three words long.

_**I'm naked – McGill.**_

Snorting, Adam shook his head and pressed reply.

_**I'M THERE!!!!! Will you tell me the knee thing when I get there…? Never mind, I'll probably be distracted with the lack of clothing. Don't worry, I won't comment about the pillow thing, although, I don't think you can put your tongue in a pillow's mouth. Okay, perhaps we should stop with the dirty joke just incase Phoebe does read your messages… and I know the Ducks sometimes read my messages. God, we can't have any privacy. – Banks.**_

Esmeralda's reply took longer this time.

_**Eager much?? Hmmmm, perhaps I'll put on some clothing… satin appeals to me. Lol, okay, I'll behave now, and yeah, you're probably right about the pillow. Lol, what is it with friends and thinking they have the right to read our messages, this means I can't send you naughty photos. Sorry, I know I said I would behave. Tell me what's happening at Eden – McGill.**_

Adam wondered why Esmeralda's reply took longer then the lasts seeing as it wasn't the longest message she had texted. He laughed at her inability to behave before he replied.

_**Should have guessed you wouldn't be able to behave. Umm, Eden, lets see… it's skank factor has risen since the McSon twins have became students… the guys are still as goofy as ever, Connie and Julie miss you and Phoebe but something tells me they have been msging you two, so you already know that, the Ducks think that Connie and Dwayne have been getting close, and surprisingly Tammy and Fulton have finally admitted their feelings for each other!!!! The Ducks busted them eating each others face the other day at the diner. Oh, and we have a match Saturday against the Bears. – Banks.**_

Ones again, Esmeralda's reply took a while longer then it should have.

_**Yeah, Connie and Julie have been sending us messages and told us about Tammy and Fulton, it's about time, I only saw the two of them together ones but it was obvious that they likes each other. The guys aren't goofy, Goofy was a dog, there Donalds! Lol. Connie had been talking about Dwayne a fair bit in her msgs, maybe there is something there. You have a match coming up? Cool, well, I just got my license, so I might steal Kristy's car and come watch. Banks, it's been fun talking to you, but I've spent the whole day in sport, dance, drama and then my out of school workshop, I'm beat. I can barely keep my eyes open. Maybe I'll see you on Saturday… maybe?? – McGill.**_

She was asking if Adam wanted her there, but why? Didn't she know that he would be happy to have her watch?

_**I'll have to keep an eye on Connie and Dwayne and let you know. Congrat's on the license, now I have to fear being killed on the road. Yeah, I hope to see you on Saturday, I'll score a goal for you if you want. You'll have to tell me about this workshop your in. Not now, you're to tired and so am I actually. Goodnight, McGill. – Banks.**_

Her reply was quick and short, showing her tiredness seeing as they had been writing big messages.

_**Well, I'll tell you on Saturday if I can get a car. I'd love for you to score a goal for me. Goodnight, Alfalfa, xxx – McGill.**_

The message may have been short, but it was probably his favorite, seeing as it promised a meeting with McGill and she had added X's at the end, which was odd but Adam was most certainly not complaining. He had to smile at the Alfalfa comment. She hadn't called him that in years.

_**All of them will be for you! Lol, Alfalfa, you haven't called me that in years! Didn't Jason used to call you Darla? Anyway, get some sleep, beautiful. – Banks.**_

"What are you smiling about?"

Adam looked over to see that Charlie was standing in the doorway, toweling his wet hair. "Just texting McGill."

"You two are talking?" Charlie asked in shock, stopping what he was doing to look at his friend.

"Yeah, she sent me a message and we've been talking for… oh, for the last twenty minutes," Adam admitted, looking at the alarm clock next to him. "I'm going to sleep, try not to be too noisy."

"Okay…"

"And don't steal my phone to read the messages!"

"Damn."

_**Hope you liked it. The fall during dancing… yeah, I actually did that, it hurt and god I was light-headed and felt sick.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	12. No Scouts This Time

_**I don't own the Ducks, reviews are lovely and thanks for the review I have.**_

"Okay, I know there are no scouts here this time, so you must have a girl in the stands," Charlie said, noticing Adam searching the stands with his eyes.

They were on the lightly dewed ice, warming up before they were to start the game. Charlie had looked up to find Adam not paying attention. He had already figured out who the girl was Adam had in the stands, but he couldn't help but tease him.

"McGill's coming today," Adam confessed, going back to warming up.

"Really?" Charlie faked astonishment. "Are you going to score any goals for her?"

Adam raised an eyebrow at Charlie and tried to stop the blush slowly making its way onto his cheeks. "Why would you say that?"

Charlie smiled a cheeky smile and made Adam dread the answer. "Your mobile is in my bag."

"You prick!" Adam exclaimed, realizing what Charlie had done. At the thought of what the messages said, Adam blushed furiously.

Charlie laughed at Adam's embarrassment. "I liked her slave comment. Smart girl! I like her, not the way you do though."

"We're friends," Adam dismissed, skating over to where their coach was. Just as he got to the little door to the Ducks section, he saw Esmeralda walking along one of the top stands. She was wearing a white corset like top with pale pink flowers on it and a short white skirt, not to mention a pair of white arm socks and a white handbag dangling from her arm. She had popcorn with her, her hair up in a messy but stylish ponytail, and, when she turned to talk to the person behind her, he realized she hadn't came alone.

Esmeralda said something to her friend before smiling, popping some popcorn in her mouth and sitting down. Looking at Esmeralda's friend, Adam saw a blond hair, green eyed boy around his own age. Adam didn't have time for his face to fall since Esmeralda spotted him watching and smiled and waved.

Adam returned the gesture before noticing the boy lean over and whisper something in Esmeralda's ear. Whatever the boy said, it made the girl blush and hit him in embarrassment.

Adam shook off the feeling of disappointment as Esmeralda smiled at him again as she munched on popcorn. He then had to turn away and listen to Coach Orion as he gave instructions. After, he skated out to face the Bear that was going to steal the puck off of him. Adam, however, got the puck and sent it to Averman. The first goal was scored by Adam and when he did, he quickly looked up to where Esmeralda sat to see her clapping and cheering.

"Hey, Essi's here," Connie acknowledged, looking to where Adam was looking.

Adam just nodded and went back to skating. This would have to be his best match he'd ever played. Back as a Hawk, he had enjoyed the game mainly because he knew Esmeralda was in the stands watching _him_, not her brother, but after becoming a Duck, she no longer watching his games. He defiantly played better when he knew she was watching, except when he made a deal with David.

He was pleased to notice that Esmeralda wasn't paying any attention to her male friend but focusing on Adam and the game. He had never played so well before. By the final buzzer, the score was 12-1, seven of those goals scored by Adam. All for Esmeralda.

After the game, Adam didn't have a chance to talk to Esmeralda since he had to get into the changing room and get cleaned up. Once he had and the coach had given his opinion of the game (modestly praising Adam for his contribution), he left the changing room.

He walked down the corridor and saw the girl leaning against the wall waiting for him. When she saw him, she ran over and threw her arms around his neck, a large smile on her face. Adam hugged her back and gave her a kiss on the cheek as she drew back.

"Banks, that was amazing, you've improved so much since the last time I watched a match of yours," Esmeralda said, smiling up at the boy, not noticing his arm was still around her waist comfortably and that her arms were around his neck loosely.

"Hey, Love, if you don't hurry up, I'll leave you here," someone stated from the end of the corridor.

Looking over, Adam saw the blond boy Esmeralda had sat with during the match. Esmeralda just looked at him and rolled her eyes as she dropped her arms. "Leo, I'm talking to a friend."

"More like receiving a kiss from said _friend._" Leo seemed to have an attitude towards Adam. The hockey player didn't know what was causing the attitude but he had a sudden dislike towards the boy named after a zodiac.

"Shut up, Leo," Esmeralda muttered as she blushed.

Adam smiled down at her, finding her rosy cheeks adorable. Lovingly, he pushed hair off of Esmeralda's neck, making her look up when his fingers brushed the sensitive skin. She looked up at him with that unwavering, ecstatic smile and Adam responded with one of his own soft smiles.

Their actions must have been making Leo uncomfortable because he cleared his throat, making the two look over at him and Adam to drop his hand.

"Love, ride home, you want one?" Leo asked exasperatedly before running his fingers through his hair.

"Oh, umm, I, arr," Esmeralda stammered, shooting Adam a look. "I was kinda hoping Banks would give me a lift later."

"Yeah, sure," Adam agreed heartily.

"Of course," Leo scoffed, rolling his eyes again and going to turn, right before…

"Leo! I see you and Esmeralda are still… friends!" One of the McSon twins exclaimed, appearing around the corner with the Ducks. The Ducks shot Adam a 'sorry' expression as the two insufferable girls hugged an unwilling Leo.

"What are you talking about?" Esmeralda asked.

"Oh, nothing,: the two girls stated, clearly hiding something.

"Okay, well, we have plans, and Leo's heading back to Cutlan, so, see ya," Esmeralda told them, indicating she and Adam had plans. Esmeralda took Adam's hand and led him passed the twins and the Ducks. They walked out of the Rink quickly and quietly. Once they were out of the building, they let go of each other's hands and started laughing.

"Thanks for that," Adam said through breaths of laughter.

"It's alright, they are so… grrr!" McGill growled in explanation before turning around when she heard footsteps behind her.

The two turned to see the Ducks running towards them, all looking amused. They crashed through the door, making Esmeralda step into Adam's arms out of fear of the door hitting her as it was forcibly swung open. The blond boy snaked his arms around his sister's best friend as the Ducks caught their breath.

"That was so funny!" Julie exclaimed. "You should have seen their faces!"

Esmeralda, sensing the danger was gone, stepped away from Adam and Adam let his arms slide off her. The sixteen-year-old laughed and suddenly, Connie and Julie grabbed her and started leading her away from the boys. Talking imitable as they did.

"Hey, where so you girls think you're going?" Russ asked in confusion.

"Well, didn't you boys want to go to Mickey's?" Connie questioned stopping and looking over her shoulder. "You know me and Julie prefer to just hang out in non-crowded areas after a match."

"Yeah, but what about Essi?" Dwayne turned his attention to the younger girl.

"Sounds fun." Esmeralda's smile was more for Adam than anyone else. "Come on, girls, live a little!"

The two girls grudgingly agreed and they headed off to the bus stop, not seeing the sense in taking cars seeing as there was so many of them.

"So, Essi, you have you license?" Charlie asked the girl as they hopped on the bus.

Esmeralda looked at Charlie then Adam before seeing Adam's blush. She, too, blushed, realizing what Charlie had done. "Um, yes, I do."

"Hey, Essi," Charlie started again after a short silence. "What do you think about slaves?"

Esmeralda's blush deepened. "I… I don't know. It's bad to make people do what they don't want to."

Thankfully Charlie stopped the questioning there, mainly because Adam had discreetly given him a dead arm. Unfortunately for the girls, the bus was rather full, so the girls had to sit of the boys lap. Connie sat on Dwayne's lap and Julie sat on Goldberg's lap. Esmeralda decided to stand, seeing as she knew she would end up on Adam's lap if she wanted a seat and that would just add Charlie's amusement. It was miss fortune that the street they were going down happen to be full of pot-holes and the shows she was wearing weren't the studious. When one of the wheels of the bus fell into a particularly nasty one, Esmeralda lost her footing and landed on Adam's lap. It was lucky he had reacted in time and moved his hands, since he had been checking a message he had received from his brother and Esmeralda had been moments away from landing on his mobile.

"I guess I'm sitting," Esmeralda stated sarcastically, crossing her legs as she sat sideways on Adam's lap.

"Guess so," Adam agreed, going back to his message and trying not to notice how long Esmeralda's legs were.

"Hey, Banks," Esmeralda said, drawing her attention away from the conversation she was having with the Ducks in the seat behind.

"What?" Adam asked distractedly, having been texting his brother.

"How protective are you of Phoebe?"

"I don't know, depends I guess," Adam replied, looking up at the Aphrodite sitting on him, well, that's what she looked like to him, or maybe an Angel because of the white. "Why?"

"Just asking," Esmeralda trailed off.

"What is it?" Adam pressured, ignoring his phone.

"Okay, let's say Phoebe started dating a guy she really likes and you know and therefore, know they're a nice guy. Would you get overprotective and use him as a hockey puck?" Esmeralda questioned vaguely.

"Only if he hurt her," Adam assured the brunette. "What do you know that I don't?"

"About your siblings?" Esmeralda looked at him in false disbelieve at him not knowing the answer. "A lot."

"I doubt that!" Adam rolled his eyes, not realizing all the Ducks were listening to the exchange between the two.

"Really?" Esmeralda decided to test it. "Who's Maria dating?"

"She's not dating anyone," Adam answered simply.

Esmeralda snorted, it clearly wasn't the answer. "Where and what is Jason's tattoo?"

"He doesn't have one."

Again, it was the wrong answer. "Who was Kelly's first crush?"

"I don't know."

"Who or at what age was Phoebe's first kiss?"

"She's kissed someone?" Adam asked in disbelieve, never thinking of his little sister being with someone like that.

"Yes and breathe easy, it wasn't a Hawk," Esmeralda assured him, mainly stating that, unlike them, she had not kissed her siblings best friend. "See? I'm betting you also don't know Malinka's preg either."

"Mal's pregnant?" Adam exclaimed in shock.

Esmeralda just nodded at him as though he was a very slow child. "Why do you think she's been taking it easy and has been asking for help? Trust me; it's easy for pregnant woman to get fatigued."

"Oh." As Adam uttered that, the bus pulled up at their stop and Esmeralda slid off of Adam's legs.

The large group headed into Mickey's and sat at a booth with extra chairs near it. Esmeralda noticed Dwayne politely pull out a chair for Connie before shyly sitting next to her. The dancer then smiled at Adam who was waiting for her to sit in the booth before him.

The group all looked at menus to work out what they wanted and then waited for someone to come over and take their order. It was Charlie's mom that did.

"Hello, Mom, this is Esmeralda McGill," Charlie introduced the only teen his mother didn't know.

"McGill, I know that name." Casey Conway's face turned pensive as she tried to figure out where she had heard the name from, not noticing the Esmeralda had dropped her head in shame.

Adam gave Esmeralda's hand a gentle squeeze before addressing the woman that was like a second mother. "David McGill was the… "

"Wanker?" Esmeralda added for Adam who clearly didn't want to swear in front of the woman.

"Yeah, thanks, McGill, the, yeah, that almost broke my neck in the Hawks – Ducks match. This is his little sister. She's best friends with Phoebe."

"Oh, well, it's nice to mean you," Mrs. Conway said with a polite smile. Although she had remarried before the Ducks had attended the Goodwill Games, they still called her Mrs. Conway. The older woman's eyes rested briefly on Adam's hand on Esmeralda's before asking for their orders.

After Esmeralda said she just wanted fries and a mango smoothie, she went to get money out of her wallet but Adam stopped her. "I'll pay," he told her.

"You don't have to, I have a job, therefore money," Esmeralda informed him.

"I know, but I invited you to the game, which means I'm the reason you're at the diner, so I'll pay for it," Adam explained simply. Esmeralda couldn't argue anymore because Adam had already handed over the money to pay for them both.

"You know, I've been here a lot but I've never noticed that there were mango smoothies on the list," Connie confessed.

"I _love_ mangos. I have them all the time. So it's not surprising I saw it. Phoebe swears I smell like mango's cause I eat them so much," Esmeralda said.

_That explains it!_ Adam thought, remembering how Phoebe had used all of Esmeralda's produces but had not smelt like mangos. He had known that mango's were Esmeralda's favored food out of everything, but he never thought that was the reason behind her scent. He couldn't help but chuckle at the memory of a little girl with brown hair and eyes and mango over her hands and face. When his amused sound was heard by his friends, he had to tell them what he was laughing at, which make Esmeralda blush.

"Shut up," she mumbled.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Ducks had gone their separate ways after a few hours of chatting. Some had taken an early bus back to Eden Hall, others had gone to the Mall and some had gone home to have dinner with their family's. Adam and Esmeralda, however, were walking back to Eden Hall instead of getting a bus, from there, they were going to take Adam's car to Cutlan.

"So can I drive to Cutlan?" Esmeralda asked with an excited bounce to her step.

"I actually want to live to see tomorrow," Adam jibed, ignoring the fact that Esmeralda was swinging their conjoined hands like a little girl who had only just gotten over the 'boys are icky' stage and was in the 'first crush' stage.

"I'm not a bad driver," Esmeralda yelped in offense. "Leo actually said I was really good."

At the boys name, Adam decided to agree. "Okay, you can, but you can't change the station to something crap."

"Deal!" Esmeralda squealed in excitement. As they continued to walk, Esmeralda calmed down a little and asked a question in a soft voice. "Did you score all those goals for me?"

It took Adam a moment to register what he had heard, when he did, he looked sideways at the girl. "Yeah, I did."

A smile tugged on Esmeralda's lips as she looked down shyly. "That's probably the sweetest thing someone's ever done for me."

"Oh really, well what do I get in return?" Adam asked with a cheeky tone to his voice.

Esmeralda seem to think for a moment before stopping her steps and making Adam halt. Stepping closer to Adam, she whispered in his ear, "One of two thinks. I'll either tell you what I was talking about on the bus…"

"Or?" Adam asked when Esmeralda hesitated.

"I won't bite."

Adam drew back just enough to look into Esmeralda's eyes, their noses almost touching. _God, you're so tempting, _he thought. The moment Adam had seen Esmeralda walk into the stands, he had wanted to kiss her, but held back for three reasons: one, he had to play, two, he couldn't get into that section of the stands from the ice, and, three, if he started, he wouldn't stop kissing her. And that was his dilemma now. She was standing right in front of him, waiting for him to decide if he wanted to kiss her like she was letting him. Groaning softly, Adam dropped his head. "I want to say two, but… the first one."

Esmeralda turned away from Adam and started walking down the street, her hand still intertwined with his. She was good at hiding her pain of being rejected from her face as she bit her lip. "Don't tell Phoebe!"

"I won't," Adam promised, walking along side her.

"I think Phoebe and Jesse like each other, but don't do anything, okay?" Esmeralda shot him a look and for the briefest moment, Adam saw the emotions inside the mute girl.

"I won't," Adam said half distractedly, trying to interpret what he had saw in her eyes before she looked away. It was turmoil of emotions and was undecipherable.

They continued to walk in silence and when in the car, only the music from the stereo could be heard. It wasn't an awkward silence or anything; it was just that neither of them had anything to say. When they pulled up at Cutlan, they both got out and Adam walked over to the other side of the car to get in the driver's side.

"You actually are a really good driver," Adam admitted to the girl before him.

"Thanks," Esmeralda mumbled. Next think Adam knew, Esmeralda had stepped towards him and planted a soft, swift kiss on his unexpecting lips before turning and walking off.

"What was that for?" Adam yelled to Esmeralda's retreating back.

Turning, the girl continued to walk backwards towards the building. "You scored seven goals out of twelve, you deserved to rewards!" she yelled back with a smile before spinning and sprinting off to the dormitory building.

Adam smiled and shook his head as he got back in his car. He drove away, happy that Esmeralda had been the one to initiate and end the kiss. If it was him to start it, he doubted he'd have ended it and he hated being pushed away from Esmeralda. He hated that school separated them. He'd have to see her ones a week so that he didn't miss her so much. If he had to go through the whole of the school semester without seeing her, he'd probably confess his feeling to her the moment he saw her.

_**Hope you liked it and yes, I know, I was mean by what I did to Adam but, all well.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	13. Kevin

_**I do not own the Ducks, thank you for reviews and sorry this chapter's so short. It's the way it is because it's setting up for the next chapter which is really important and no I couldn't combined the two because it wouldn't leave you in suspense. I'm evil!**_

"You know, I'm so glad Essi and Leo are still friends," Aimee stated loudly from the lunch table next to the Ducks. It was the Wednesday after the match and they were still holding a grudge about what happened.

"I know!" Jamie exclaimed just as loudly, making sure her voice drifted over to the other table. "After last year. Honestly, I'm sooo thankful, if they're not going to be together they can at least stay friends for Kevin's sake."

Portman, always having the short temper, finally gave into the girl's coercion. Turning in his chair, he growled, "What are you two talking about?"

The two girls pretended to be shocked that they were over heard before smiling politely and getting up, walking over to the Ducks table and joining it.

"Well, have any of you guys seen the photo in Essi's wallet?" Jamie asked. When the group shook their heads, she went on. "It's a baby boy, he's about ten months old now. God he looks like a perfect mixture of Esmeralda and Leo. He has Essi's hair, eyes, a lot of her personality and her complexion with Leo's nose, lips and ears…"

"Essi had to leave school last year for a few months, she was in hospital. Then she tried to tell us she had been injured," Aimee finished for her sister. "Please, like we would judge her."

The group was silent as they absorbed what the twins were telling them. They couldn't believe it! Esmeralda having a son, with the boy they met on the weekend.

"But Essi said she didn't date," Charlie said, remembering the message to Adam.

"Oh, we know she doesn't. They weren't dating when Essi got pregnant," Jamie told them calmly, looking at her nails.

Adam wanted to leave and go find out if it was true, but a large part of him didn't want to know if it was true or not. He didn't know how he felt about Esmeralda possibly being a mother. He had to admit that she would be an amazing mother but he had never thought of her being one so young. The thought of her with some guy boiled Adam's blood to no end. He would just have to ask her about it next time he say her.

"What?!" Aimee exclaimed, noticing Adam's bewildered look.

"Didn't she tell you?" Jamie went on.

"You think she would…"

"…Seeing as she's your beloved girlfriend."

The twins looked sadistically pleased that they had shaken up Esmeralda's and Adam's 'relationship'. Satisfied, they said goodbye and walked out, trying to hold back large smiles.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So how was the match?" Clover asked.

"Good, except your brother found it necessary to lean over and whisper in my ear, 'so that's _your_ Adam'. The brat," Esmeralda replied with a laugh.

The two girls were at the park with Kevin, just sitting around, enjoying the sun and fresh air. Esmeralda had had an especially annoying day at school and had rang up Clover when it was over to ask if she and Kevin wanted to hang out for a while.

"That's Leo for you, he's a smart ass," Clover reminded her friend with a chuckle.

Esmeralda bounced Kevin on her leg while the little boy looked around at the people and the birds. It was a beautiful day, considering how lousy hers had been. "You having fun, baby?" Esmeralda cooed to Kevin, just getting giggles from the little boy.

"I think that's a yes," Clover commented. "So why don't you just grab the boy and kiss him?"

Esmeralda rolled her eyes at the bold question. Only Clover Harmon would be game enough to ask Esmeralda such things. "Clov, what the hell?!"

"Don't deny that you find him a smoking hotty. I saw the picture my brother took of you two. It was written over both of your faces."

"Yeah right," Esmeralda denied. "Nothing would have been written on Banks' face."

"Oh but there would have been something on your face?" Clover picked up on Esmeralda's slip.

The brunette girl seemed to ignore Clover and turned to Kevin. "Don't listen to your mommy and Aunty."

"Are you going to answer?" Clover pressured.

"Fine, alright, I admit it! I want to grab Banks and kiss him." Esmeralda rolled her eyes at her friend who was lying down from laughing so hard. "You know you're a real," she shot Kevin a look, "one of those things that means female dog and starts with 'b'."

Clover just laughed a bit more at the other girl's expense. "Well," Clover said when she had calmed down and got out her mobile to look at the photo. "From this picture, I have to say, he's cute and you two look good together. I mean wow. Everyone says Leo and you look good together but you two have the 'friend' vibe, where you and Mr. Banks have the 'make-out-in-dark-corners-cause-we-can't-keep-our-hands-off-each-other' vibe."

Esmeralda's eyes went wide and she gasped at the blonde's statement. She then went red at the thought, making Clover go back into a laughing fit.

"You're such a virgin sometimes."

"You're going to teach my little boy some bad words if you don't stop it!" Esmeralda exclaimed, drawing Kevin closer to her. "And you don't know what I've gotten up to."

"Well be thankful I haven't mentioned how you and your brother like blonds," Clover said innocently, making Esmeralda grimace.

"Maybe that's why David was so annoyed with me seeing Banks again, he secretly likes him," Esmeralda contemplated.

"What do you know?! You and your brother have something in common. You both find one Adam Banks good looking."

Esmeralda just rolled her eyes as more peals of laughter left the blonde.

"What am I going to do this weekend?" Esmeralda asked as Clover got a drink out for Kevin.

"What do you mean?"

"He sent me a message yesterday saying I forgot to tell him about my workshop and we should get together this weekend so I can tell him. Wipe that smile off your face," Esmeralda demanded, seeing her friend's suggestive grin.

"I think you'll be fine. Just don't…" Clover dropped her voice so Kevin couldn't hear, "Just don't push him against anything and kiss him till his brains mush."

"I'm sure I won't." Esmeralda rolled her eyes again. It was becoming a habit around Clover.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The warm sand seeped between Esmeralda's toes and over her bare feet as she walked. Adam and she were at a sandy bank that was hardly ever used by swimmers or fisherman because of the amount of rocks under the water. It was a calm day and the two were having fun just talking.

"So this workshop, is a Drama work shop?" Adam clarified.

"Yep," Esmeralda told him, swinging her sandals that were in her hand.

"What are you performing?" Adam questioned.

"Um, I'm not telling you." Esmeralda smiled.

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not going to. You'll just have to come see the performance when it's on."

"Fine, I will." Adam took Esmeralda's hand and the two walked in silence till Adam couldn't hold back any more. "So the twins tell me Kevin looks like you."

"They told you about him? Yeah, he does," Esmeralda agreed, smiling happily. "I'm so glad he doesn't look like my brother."

"What about Leo?"

"Yeah, he looks like Leo too. Of course he would, he's related to both of us. But Leo and Clover look so much alike, you could always say he looks like Clover and not Leo." Esmeralda had a bounce to her step again and when she walked, the mid-morning light hit her hair and pale yellow sundress, making her outline glow.

"Clover?" Adam questioned, smiling fondly at how the sun made Esmeralda look.

"Leo's older sister, she's a year older then you and I met her and Leo through David. Clover regrets meeting David but not me. Leo and Clover are good friends to have, people often say Leo and I look like a good couple but he's not my type." Esmeralda looked at the crystal blue water and sighed in content.

"But he's blond," Adam pointed out.

"Do you like every Brunette girl?" Esmeralda retorted.

"Good point." Adam laughed and spun Esmeralda by the hand, making her giggle. The boy decided that he didn't care if Kevin was Esmeralda's son. She was happy, and she and Leo seemed to just be friends now, that meant he didn't have to worry about stepping on the other boy's toes. "I only like certain brunettes."

"Oh, really. Let me guess! Hockey obsessed, no brains, big chest?" Esmeralda joked.

"No," Adam said, pulling Esmeralda closer to him and putting his arm over her shoulder. He kissed her forehead. "Passionate about what she cares about, brains beyond belief; nice chest." Adam looked at said body part, making Esmeralda shriek jokingly and push the top of her dress against her skin so he couldn't see down it, making Adam laugh and kiss her again, this time on the cheek.

Esmeralda then put her head against Adam's chest as they walked. It was where her head was that allowed her to hear the boy's voice vibrate through his ribcage. "What's the play?" he pestered.

"I'm not telling you," Esmeralda replied in a sing-song voice as she moved out from under Adam's arm and ran off, making the boy follow.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Adam walked back into the main building after practice only to be quickly ushered into the auditorium by some teacher. The room was already packed by most of the school but Adam still located the rest of the Ducks. When he sat down, he turned to Ken and asked what was going on.

"No idea. The teachers just said something about 'patching things up with Cutlan'. You know the two schools have never gotten along. Anyway, it's apparently has something to do with the hockey team."

Just then the Dean stood up at the podium and addressed the school. "As you know, Cutlan and Eden have never gotten along. They haven't since back when I was a student and long before that…"

"What? The dinosaurs in the two parts didn't get along?" Russ joked quietly.

"…so we have decided it is about time to patch things up. If I could please have the Varsity hockey team up here, the Ducks." The Dean waited until all the Ducks were up on the stage before continuing. "This team is going to represent Eden in a hockey match against the Cultan Eagles. The cheerleaders, the school band and a select few are also going to go to Cutlan to encourage our team since this particular match will be happening during class time instead of on the weekend. After the match, the Eden Hall students are welcome to attend a concert Cutlan is holding. Apparently they hold one at the start of the year, middle and end to encourage their students to try their best. They have bands, dancers, acts and such. So it should be fun."

When the students stayed silent, the Dean cleared his throat and finished. "All right, it's happening in two weeks on the Friday."

The students were then dismissed.

"Fun," Julie said sarcastically.

"Like their trying to make amends. They just want to show the other how much better they are. We send our hockey team instead of baseball or basketball team and they hold a concert that day," Connie rambled.

"Well they actually do hold concerts during the year, Phoebe and McGill are performing," Adam told her calmly.

"Oh, there's a plus," Averman interjected, "We can ask Essi about Kevin. I refuse to believe she got pregnant and didn't tell us that she had a kid. I can't even believe she would be with anyone but…" the rest of Averman's sentence came out muffled as Fulton covered his mouth with his large hand.

"We get it, Averman!" Fulton growled, releasing the boy.

Averman just rubbed his jaw and glared at the Bash Brother for his assault.

_**Beware identical blondes with stories to tell!!!!**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	14. The Ballet Dancer And The Hockey Player

_**If you haven't realized yet, I don't own the Ducks (if I did, Adam wouldn't have been treated so badly) and I love reviews.**_

Two weeks passed quickly, but not quick enough for Adam. Because of the up and coming concert, Esmeralda couldn't see Adam on the weekend's during those two weeks. But that didn't matter because Adam and the Ducks, as well as the Varsity cheerleaders (sadly including Aimee and Jamie) and a select few were on a bus heading to Cutlan Hall.

When they got there, they filled out and looked up at a large, apposing building with Gargoyles on the top. Being told the match wasn't for another two hours, the Ducks decided to go searching for Phoebe, Esmeralda, or the Hall boys.

They found all of them. They were walking out of the main building together. Phoebe ran out in front and did a cart wheel as Esmeralda seemed to laugh at Terry's expanse. It was Jesse that saw them. He had been looking at Phoebe and saw them over her shoulder. When he pointed the group out, the girls looked at each other with identical evil smiles before running over to them, Terry hot on their tail looking embarrassed.

"Guess what, guess what!" Phoebe demanded in excitement.

"Terry tota…" Esmeralda didn't get any further then that as Terry caught up with them and covered her mouth. The girl just collapsed into him as her body shook with suppressed laughter.

"You know she can easily get out of that, right?" Phoebe asked as Jesse chuckled beside her.

"How?" Terry looked at Esmeralda to see he was the only thing holding her up cause her knees had collapsed from laughter.

Phoebe walked behind Terry. "Like this!" she said, poking his side and tickling him. He jumped and released Esmeralda as he turned to stop Phoebe. Esmeralda dropped to the ground but quickly got up and ran behind the closest person to get away from Terry.

Hiding behind Portman, Esmeralda laughed. "Terry forgot his name!"

Phoebe picked up his story even though Terry had a hold of her hands and was looking at her in a threatening manner. "He was talking to this pretty girl and she introduced herself and he…" Terry started tickling her, stopping her from talking any more.

But that didn't matter because Esmeralda started up again. "He forgot his name! He stood there going 'I'm… ah… my name is…' he didn't even notice that Phoebe and I had walked up to him till we both yelled 'Terry' in his ear."

The Ducks chuckled at their embarrassed friend.

"Come on, lets go sit down," Jesse spoke for the first time since coming over to the Ducks. He and Phoebe led the way over to a section of the courtyard and sat down on the grass. When they had started to walk, Esmeralda shot Adam a look, clearly saying 'remember what you promised, no doing anything to mess them up!' Adam just threw her a smile in return, silently telling her he wouldn't.

The lot of friends talked for a while and the Ducks were able to find out that because Esmeralda had been away last year (according to Aimee and Jamie, because she was having a son) she had to do four dances at the concert or she would fail last years Dance class. Along with the solo ballet, the couple dance, the dance with Phoebe and the group dance, she and Phoebe also had to do the class dance for this year. Apparently their teacher was a bitch and didn't go slack on anyone, no matter what.

When Esmeralda talked about the fact that she hadn't been at school, Dwayne couldn't look at her. All the Ducks knew that Dwayne grew up in a very moralistic family and the thought of a teenage, single, mother made him uncomfortable, so they did their best to make sure Esmeralda didn't notice.

"So does anyone know why our two schools are suddenly trying to get along?" Russ asked.

"Romeo and Juliet!"

The Ducks looked at the four Cutlan students in confusion, seeing as all four had answered.

Noticing their confusion, they laughed, but it was Jesse who clarified. "Romeo and Juliet are the nicknames we gave to two engaged people. Romeo is actually named Mark and his you Dean's son and Juliet is actually called Ashley and she's our Dean's daughter. They want their fathers to be civilized but because of the tension between the schools, they cant. So their trying to fix it."

After a while of talking, Esmeralda looked over at something away from the group and her eyes widened. "Hey, perhaps you guys should be shown the Rink, so you know your way from the changing room, it gets a bit confusing apparently. That's what Leo said anyway," Esmeralda stated. Phoebe quirked an eyebrow at her friend and Esmeralda nodded her head in the direction she had looked.

Phoebe looked over before realizing what Esmeralda was doing. "Yeah, she's right."

Adam was the only one to stand up. "Alright."

"But we have about half an hour till the match, why don't you go, Banks, and then you can show us how to get there," Guy recommended.

"Yeah, that will do," Esmeralda agreed, looking back at that same spot with a slight panicked look.

"Umm, okay." Adam was then quickly led away by Esmeralda.

"That was close," Phoebe said, getting confused looks from everyone. "Maria's just over there, she's here for the match and the concert and doesn't know we're right here. She wants to tell Adam something but she just hasn't had the guts yet but if he saw her, he'd know straight away and he might be hurt that she didn't just tell him."

"What are you talking about?" Ken asked.

"Just look!"

The Ducks looked over (seeing as Terry and Jesse knew already) and gasped in shock at what they saw.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Esmeralda showed Adam to the building that the ice rink was in. walking in, the boy saw a counter where students that didn't have skates could borrow some, as well as lockers against the far wall for students who did own skates and wanted to keep them at the rink.

"Do you have a locker?" Adam asked the girl in front of him as they stopped in the foyer. Esmeralda simply nodded. "Well why not get your skates? There's still time before the match."

"Alright," Esmeralda agreed, walking over to one of the many lockers and pulled a key out of her shoulder-bag. She opened the locker and took out the two skate shoes before putting her bag in. "Come on."

They sat on the bench near the door to the ice as they changed out of their street shoes. Adam left his bag beside him as he laced up his skates and Esmeralda waited, already finished. When he looked up, it was to see that Esmeralda had swiped his Ducks jersey from his open bag and had put it on over her electric blue tank-top.

It was far too big for her, seeing as it fitted Adam and his hockey padding and Adam was taller and wider then the brunette without padding. The sleeves fell down, passed her elbows, covering a large quantity of her black arm-socks. The V-neck dipped so Adam could see the top of Esmeralda's low cut top and the bottom of the jersey stopped just passed the girls butt with her legs having only her back tights for coverage like before she put it on.

"Take off my jersey, McGill," Adam ordered in a bored voice that didn't sound as false as it was.

"No, I'm cold and this covers more then my actual clothes do," Esmeralda replied, stepping onto the ice.

Adam just rolled his eyes at the girl before getting up and following her. They skated for a while before the conversation steered back to the jersey. "McGill, you're going to make it smell girly. What will your schools team think if they got a whiff of it?"

"That you have good taste in shampoo products?" Esmeralda offered, skating around Adam. "Or that you had a girl wearing it, which is actually what's happened. Come on, Banks, you get girls wearing guys shirts all the time."

"Yes," Adam agreed, grabbing the girl around the waist and drawing her close to him, so her back was against his chest. "But that tends to be in the 'Morning After', if you catch my meaning," Adam whispered into the hair covering Esmeralda's ear, as he ran a hand up the girls inner-thigh.

Esmeralda inhaled sharply and turned her head to look at Adam. "So that's why you don't want me wearing it? It gives you naughty thoughts?"

"You have no idea," Adam confessed before kissing her. He kept his arms around her waist as Esmeralda put one hand on top of his and another against his cheek.

They broke apart quickly as they heard a door slam shut in the distance.

"Essi? You in here?" a female voice rang through the building from the foyer only one room over.

"Yeah, Clover, hang on," Esmeralda yelled before looking back at Adam. "I've gotta go."

"You've got to give back my jersey," Adam told her, pecking her lips.

Esmeralda kissed him back before taking off the jersey, handing it to Adam. She then skated off the ice and quickly took off her skates, slipping on her shoes as she ran.

Adam sighed and skated off the ice. He grabbed his bag and headed to the changing rooms, as he changed, he heard the Ducks making their way to the changing room. The moment Julie and Connie had entered, they looked at Adam.

"Guess who we saw!"

Esmeralda made her way quickly to the foyer. When she got there, she saw Clover holding Kevin. Smiling, Esmeralda put her skates in her locker and took out her bag before going over to the two.

"Hello," Clover greeted as Esmeralda took Kevin out of her arms. "And, what, may I ask, have you been up to?"

The brunette girl buried her face in Kevin's shoulder as the little boy gave her a hug. Only her eyes could he seen, looking at the blonde. "Skating."

"Right, cause skating makes your lips red and makes your eyes like that!" Clover retorted with a roll of her eyes and a snort of laughter.

"Shut up," Esmeralda mumbled as the glass doors to the building were pushed open. The two girls and baby boy looked over in shock, only to see the members of the Duck team, minus Adam, not that Clover knew.

"Oh, hello," Ken said shyly, looking at the three.

"Clover, this is the Ducks, Ducks, this is Clover and Kevin," Esmeralda introduced, letting Kevin grab her finger4 in his little fist.

"Wait!" Clover turned to her friend with a large smile. "Phoebe's brother's team?"

Esmeralda simply nodded, looking at Kevin as she bounced him on her hip gently. "But he's not with them."

"Where is he?"

In response, Esmeralda pointed the way she had just came. Clover looked from her friend to where she was pointing before her smile grew.

"Oh."

Esmeralda just rolled her eyes at the blonde before turning to the team. "Do you want to be shown to the changing rooms?"

"No, it's alright," Dwayne told her, looking uncomfortable and not meeting Esmeralda's eye. "Just point."

"Um, okay, that way." Esmeralda pointed to the direction that was quickest before telling them she and Clover were going to find Phoebe, Maria, Kristy and Leo before getting seats.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first look at Kevin that Adam got was from the ice. The team had told him how they had met him and how he looked like Esmeralda, but they didn't say how much. Phoebe, Maria and Kristy sat next to each other and on the bench behind, Leo, Esmeralda and a woman that looked like Leo, presumably Clover. Kevin sat on Esmeralda's lap, and Adam couldn't believe how much they looked alike.

Kevin had a look on his face of pure excitement and wonder, one Esmeralda always wore when watching a hockey match.

When Esmeralda saw Adam, she smiled and waved, before whispering something in Kevin's ear, making him giggle. The Clover saw Adam wave back and smiled, saying something to Esmeralda. Whatever she said made the brunette blush and Leo chuckle. In retaliation, Esmeralda pointed at something, drawing Kevin's attention away from the adults before Esmeralda backhanded Leo.

The game was a quick one. It ended in the Duck's favor of course but it was a close game. When the Ducks got out of the changing room, they saw Esmeralda walking towards them with a very sleepy Kevin in her arms.

"Hey, guys, great game." Esmeralda smiled at them.

"Thanks, Essi," Charlie replied.

Esmeralda went to say something else but before she did, she noticed Dwayne not looking at her. "Dwayne, what's wrong?"

The cowboy scuffed his feet and looked at the floor uncomfortably. "Sorry, it's just… I was raised to believe children should only be born into a loving, married family. I'm uncomfortable about looking at a single, teenage mother that… that clearly fancy's someone other then the father."

Esmeralda looked at Dwayne in confusion before looking over her shoulder, then back at Dwayne. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, it's clear you li…"

The brunette girl was clearly to confused to listen to the boy. "You barely know Kevin's mom. How would you know if she liked someone? Hell, I know she doesn't like Kevin's father, but seeing as my brother got her drunk to take advantage of her, why should she?"

"What's your brother got to do with this? Fulton asked, now as bewildered as Esmeralda, but for different reasons.

"David's the father!"

"I thought Leo was the father," Connie said, frowning.

"Ew!" Esmeralda exclaimed as Clover started making her way down the corridor to them. "Leo's Clover's brother! That's disgusting, plus, Kevin clearly has my blood in him and seeing as his not my son…"

"Wait! You're not Kevin's mother?" Adam asked, his mouth gaping open.

Clover drew level with the group and after taking one look at her friend, standing there with her mouth opened slightly but her jaw tight, she quickly took the sleeping Kevin out of her arms.

"You thought Kevin was my son?" Esmeralda questioned in a deadly whisper, letting Clover take the boy. "You thought Leo and I had had a son?"

"Well, yeah, Kevin looks so much like you…" Adam trailed off as Esmeralda glared at him. Considering she tended to only have happy, sad or confused as her overall emotions, she sure had angry down.

"I can't believe you!" she snapped, her brown eyes never leaving Adam's blue.

"You actually thought I'd let… Do you really believe that I would act tha…" she made a noise in the back of her throat that sounded like a soft roar before turning and storming down the hall.

Adam looked baffled for a moment before shooting Clover – who had shrunk against the wall – a glance before running after Esmeralda.

"Why are you so mad?" Adam asked, finally stopping her as she walked passed the ice rink.

"I don't want to talk to you," she replied in a biting tone, trying to get Adam to let go of her arms. "Let me go!"

"No, McGill, I don't know hwy you're angry but I'm sorry. You and Kevin look so much alike it's hard not to think you're his mom. You would make a great mom, no matter your age, that's why I didn't care that you had a kid with Leo. Admittedly I was a little hurt I… never mind."

Thankfully Esmeralda didn't question the last part but alternatively let her anger take over. "How dare you! You don't get it, do you? You actually thought I was a mother. Banks, do you think me to be a slut? I kissed you! I slept in your bed! With you! I've worn some of my smallest pajamas around you! When you had your arms around me! Do you think I would really do those things if I had a son?"

Adam finally let go of Esmeralda. Not because he _wanted _her to run, but because he knew she _wouldn't_ run. She was letting out a lot of anger and frustration, some that seemed to have been there, under the surface for a while and nothing could stop her, not even herself.

"You actually thought I'd let him touch me in a way that's more then friendly? There's a reason I have never had a boyfriend and before you jump to conclusions again, no I'm not a lesbian. I just can't believe you!"

Although he knew he shouldn't, he couldn't stop himself. "I don't get it."

"YOU NEVER GET IT, Adam!" Esmeralda yelled before turning and going to stalk off. Before she could, Adam caught her wrist and tried to stop her. However, Esmeralda turned back to him and wrenched her wrist out of his grasp. "Don't _ever_ touch me again."

"Es…"

"No!"

"Please…"

"No! Just stop!"

Before Adam could say anything else, Esmeralda turned and ran away.

_**I know, I'm an evil bitch! I have them fighting… AGAIN! And they practically admitted their feelings but no! they still don't get it. This chapter was going to go for longer but I decided to half it so I could post what I already have typed up and you lot won't think I've abandoned you.**_

_**Thank you for all those that have reviewed and/or added me to favourites and story alert. I didn't know I had so many readers but it's happy to know that you all enjoy my story and keep coming back to find out what happens.**_

_**I am sorry to say, I may not post as frequently as I have been since school is becoming quite demanding and during the winter my fingers go numb and my typing is slowed down, a lot considering I can type rather fast.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	15. TBDATHP: Part 2

_**I do not own the Ducks, thank you for reviews!**_

"Have I ever told you that you are an idiot?"

"Phoebe!"

"No, Adam, seriously, you are. You clearly like Esmeralda but you insult her?" Phoebe stood before the Ducks who were sitting on the grass. Her hands were on her hips and her shadow was cased over the group in an intimidating manner.

"I didn't insult her!" I didn't care that Kevin was her son," Adam told his little sister quickly before she could cut in.

"What?!"

"Didn't McGill tell you the whole story?" Adam snapped.

"The whole story? She's pissed, all I could get out of her was 'Banks', Clover told me that Essi felt you insulted her by saying she was Kevin's mom and I fully understand why." Phoebe flailed her arms around in exasperation.

"I don't know why she feels insulted. I said I thought she would be a great mother no matter her age," Adam admitted with an indifference shrug.

"Adam, you are _so_ stupid! Honestly, you're the only one that doesn't see it!" Phoebe cried. "Hell, Aimee and Jamie see it."

"See what?" Adam yelled.

"My point proven!" Phoebe exclaimed. "Here's a little bit of advice: if you were telling the truth when you told me you wanted to _only_ be friends with Esmeralda then act like one. Do not, under any circumstance, treat her like a girlfriend." Phoebe seemed to loss some of her fire as she looked at her brother. "Adam, friends hug, they laugh when people say they would make a good couple and they help each other when they have relationships tank. They do not wish to date their friends, they do not get jealous of their boyfriends and they _do not_ kiss each other unless it's a peck on the cheek."

Adam looked at his little sister in complete shock. He knew what she said had merit; he just couldn't work out why Phoebe found it necessary to tell him. "Phoebe…"

"No, don't Phoebe me! I get that you and Essi are meant to be in each others lives. I know that cause Essi doesn't get hurt around you and she's had the same preppy upbringing as us so she understands you when others don't. but maybe you're only supposed to be friends and if you aren't supposed to be just friends, then suck it up and tell her before she takes Ace up on his offer to go out some time." Phoebe sighed and looked at her watch. "I have to go and get ready for the concert. Maria, Justin and Kelly are all coming to watch."

After that, Phoebe turned and walked off, leaving the Ducks in stunned silence. Adam sighed and threw himself back on the crisp grass, covering his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"She's right, you know?" Averman said to break the silence. "You two go back and forth between being friends and fighting."

"We always have," Adam assured him, his eyes still covered.

"Yes, but did you always feel this crap when you fought?" Guy questioned. "Hell, me and Connie fought because our relationship just wasn't working out."

"Guy's right. Our relationship caused our fight. We broke up, and we stopped." Connie put a comforting hand on Adam's shoulder. "But yours and Esmeralda's relationship with each other works until you reach a certain point and all the anger you secretly hold for each other is released."

Adam finally uncovered his eyes and looked at Connie in anger and pain. "I'm not angry at McGill and why does she get so mad at me?"

"Banks, can you honestly tell us that you're not mad at her for not asking you out?" Julie asked, sitting sympathetically at Adam's side with Connie on the opposite side.

Adam just groaned and covered his eyes, not being able to deny it.

"Pile on Adam!"

He knew that voice! Adam threw his eyes open to see someone land on him. With an undignified 'oof' Adam looked down at his big brother.

"Get off of me, you big brat," Adam growled, pushing his heavy brother off of him. He wasn't kidding when he said big. His brother was always fit, even after he stopped playing hockey all the time and he had the Banks height.

At the moment, he wore a smart pair of dark wash jeans and a pastel stripped, button-up shirt. His blond hair wasn't much longer then Adam's and his light green eyes were shining. He and Kelly were the only ones to inherit their mother's eyes.

As Jason pulled Adam to his feet, he saw Kelly laughing with Maria and Kristy. Kelly had light green eyes like Jason but her blonde hair wasn't bleach blonde like Maria and Phoebe's but more honey blonde like Adam's.

"Hey'a, little brother," she said, stepping forward to hug him. She was wearing a demine skirt that stopped a few inches above her knee, a pale blue tank-top and a pale pink top over it that looked as though the front had been stretched down for everyone to see the top underneath. Her skin was tan from the San Francisco sun, where she went to collage.

"Hey, Kelly," Adam greeted back.

"Sorry we didn't see your match," Jason said, smiling apologetically. "We couldn't get down here in time."

"It's alright, we won, so you know." Adam shrugged and smiled humbly.

"Well, duh!" Kelly exclaimed.

The Ducks had already met Jason and Kelly so it wasn't hard for them to slip into an easy conversation with them but unfortunately, not long after, there was an announcement over the speakers saying that the concert was going to begin in twenty minutes. Since they all wanted good seats, they headed up straight away. Waling into the hall where the concert was being held, they found row upon row of chairs for them to sit in. the first row was reserved for people that were in the concert so they could watch the parts they weren't in and there was a large amount of students already in the second and third rows so the Ducks chose the fourth. They sat their bags on their chairs before Portman, Fulton, Jesse, Terry, Kristy and the Banks; grew bored and decided to walk around the hall, and look for Phoebe and Leo who they knew were in the concert.

However, it wasn't Phoebe or Leo they found – or more, it wasn't Phoebe or Leo who found them. Instead it was…

"Jason, Kelly!"

The group turned around in time to see someone rush at Jason and wrap their arms around his neck. When they drew back and gave Kelly a hug, the group saw it was Esmeralda, except she looked different then when they saw her only a few hours ago. Her hair was in a bun except for one lock of hair that few over her eye gracefully. She had a light layer of make-up on: foundation, mascara, eyeliner, light pink lipstick and a mixture of red, brown and grey for eye shadow. She was wearing a dance out-fit not unlike that of a leotard. It was a dark red with black swirls through it, with glitter over the black. Her legs were covered by thin, black tights and on her feet were in red, satin ballet shoes with the red ribbon crisscrossing up her shin till halfway.

As she smiled at the two older Banks', the small group couldn't help but notice that Esmeralda was blatantly not looking at Adam.

"Well look at you!" Jason exclaimed, his hands on Esmeralda's shoulders as he held her at arms length. "I swear you've grown since the last time I saw you, and that was only a few month back. Gorgeous as ever though."

Esmeralda just giggled and rolled her eyes at Jason's flattery as Kelly replied, "She's still not taller then you though. Taller then me, but I'm the shortest Banks!"

Without saying a word, Esmeralda slowly raised herself up onto her flat toes. In doing so, she effectively made herself a few centimeters taller then Jason. All of Esmeralda's knew friends looked at her with their jaws on the ground whilst Jason pushed on Esmeralda's shoulders, trying to make her get off of her toes.

"Miss McGill," a shrill voice rang through the hall, drawing their attention. They saw a stern, high-matinants teacher making her way over to them. "Get behind stage, no one is meant to see a performer in their costume!"

"Yes, Miss Tillent," Esmeralda muttered, holding back an eye roll. "Bye, guys."

After that, the group went back to their seats, seeing as the hall was quickly filling up. The concert was spectacular. Esmeralda's solo was a ballet to the song 'Kissing You' from Romeo and Juliet, her couple dance was done with a strong, solidly built black boy with many lifts in it with the song 'Your Call' by Secondhand Serenade and the dance with Phoebe was a song none of them could identify, but the girls were dressed up like dolls and they used that as their stimulus for the dance. The group one, that was to show Esmeralda's skill in making up a dance consisting of more then one or two people was amazing. It was a hip-hop to the song 'Step Up' and had around ten or more people in it in simple baggy pants and tank-tops or baggy tops. The dancers moved impeccably fast and the group barely saw how Esmeralda quickly took off her baggy top so she could dance in a tank-top.

The dance that the dance class had to do for a passing grade was easily the most boring dance in the whole concert. Its moves were moves that had been in so many dances, it was actually quiet sad to see them in another.

Leo's band – that went on right after the dance class – made up for it by being incredibly entertaining. The concert on a whole was, except for that one performance.

When it ended, the Eden Hall students only had fifteen minutes before their bus left and they all had to be on it even if they weren't staying in the dorms during the weekend. Adam didn't mind though, he had to get his car to get to his parents house. Jason and Kelly had said they were heading off and they would meet everyone at the house and Adam was surprised that Maria didn't get a ride with them. Instead, she stayed behind and looked fidgety. When there was five minutes before Adam left, Maria's resolve crumbled.

"Adam, can I talk to you in private?"

Adam nodded mutely and followed his sister away from their friends. When they were out of earshot, Maria turned to Adam and looked nervous.

"Maria, what is it? You know you can tell me anything," Adam assured his older sister.

Maria played with her cuticles – which she did when she was nervous – and looked at her brother. "Do you remember when we were younger and you used to say that you'd love me no matter what, even if I hated hockey?"

"Yes," Adam said in bewilderment. "Are you telling me you hate hockey?"

Maria gave him a weak smile before it quickly slipped from her face. "No, Adam, I'm not… I'm trying to tell you… I'm trying to tell you…"

"Maria, you can say it," Adam told her in a calm voice, putting his hands on his sister's shoulders.

"I'm dating Kristy!" Maria blurted out, not looking at Adam. "I'm gay."

"I know!"

"You know?" Maria asked in astonishment.

"I know," Adam repeated. "Hell, I knew before you did."

"How?"

"Well, whenever Jason said a girl was hot, you'd agree but whenever Kelly said a guy was, you'd say 'yeah, whatever', like Justin and I," Adam explained.

"Oh, well, at least you know I won't go for Essi, I have a girlfriend," Maria joked.

"But McGill's…"

"Straight," Maria finished for her brother. "But I also think she's head-over-heels for this guy."

"Oh." Adam's face fell.

"God, Little Brother, you're so thick!" Maria exclaimed in exasperation. "Think! I could be giving you hope… or I could be crushing your dreams," she said mysteriously.

"Or you could be confusing me," Adam retorted.

"That too!" Maria smiled. "Suck it up, Princess! That's my advise, it's your job to interpret it." With that she walked off to meet up with Kristy and say goodbye to the Ducks.

Adam shook his head before following. He was really getting sick of his sisters' cryptic clues.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked down the hall with his head buzzing with thoughts. He had made up his mind of what to do, he just didn't know when he would get a chance. When she would let him! He finally reached the door he knew was his sisters. Phoebe had asked him to pick her up to take her to their parents, so here he was, knocking on the door. Unfortunately, it wasn't Phoebe who answered, it was Esmeralda.

She scoffed at the sight of him before 'politely' telling him that Phoebe would be ready in ten minutes and that he would have to wait in the hall. Instead, he asked, or more, begged her to go for a walk with him so they could talk. She grudgingly agreed to go but kept up her cold attitude.

"I'm sorry for earlier today, I really didn't mean anything by it. I never even thought about it," Adam confessed as they walked out onto the grounds. It was late so there was a dark hue over the campus.

"It's alright, I guess, I just can't believe you would think I would have sex at such a young age," Esmeralda muttered. "I've only ever kissed you."

"I guess I didn't think," Adam said, before noticing the brunette rub her cold arms. "Here," her said, shrugging off his jacket and handing it to the girl.

"Thanks."

"I really should have known, I know practically everything about you." Adam looked at the ground in shame as he realized he really _should _have known.

"You don't know practically everything about me!" Esmeralda told him with a light, humorous tone.

"Yes I do!"

"Fine," Esmeralda said, turning her back on him. "What colour are my eyes? You should know that if you know so much about me!"

"It's hard to answer that question." She heard Adam say. Esmeralda was about to turn around and sadly claim victory, but Adam kept talking. "Most of the time they're brown. They have no emotion behind them. For ages I thought that was just your eye colour, but then… I saw you dancing. That time Jason took us camping. You were dancing to the sounds of nature. You looked amazing. Your eyes looked like honey and chocolate swirled together."

"I couldn't understand it." Adam seemed lost in his own thoughts, down memory lane. "They were so full of happiness and innocents. But that's not my favourite colour. My favourite colour is the first time you looked me in the eyes. They were molten gold. They showed shyness but also something else."

Adam shook his head to try and clear his thoughts. "I don't know what that something else was… _is_ but I see it whenever you argue bout something you're passionate about. I can say that with confidence because you tend to argue with me."

"That was the first time I noticed something, the time you looked at me." Adam stepped towards Esmeralda and grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. He cupped her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Your eyes aren't brown! Your eyes have many layers to them, just like you yourself. Someone made them brown. I don't know why they would ever want to, but they did. I couldn't look at you properly for ages when I worked that out. It hurt me to much. Why would someone want to take the emotion out of your eyes?"

Adam raked his fingers through Esmeralda's hair before grasping the locks gently, putting his hand against her cheek again, this time covered in her hair and continuing, "I couldn't understand it, I didn't _want_ to understand it. When I worked out they turned gold when you argued, I started arguments with you all the time. I loved making them shine. It was like you came back, like you were never hurt. I would take a tongue lashing from you any day if I could see my favourite colour in your eyes."

There was that colour again. Esmeralda leaned into Adam's hand and closed her eyes. She hid that colour as tears fell from her closed eyes.

"Essi, please, don't!" Adam pleaded, his heart breaking.

"Adam." Esmeralda threw her arms around Adam's neck.

Adam was engulfed by her tantalizing smell. He looked down at the girl that was now looking up at him. She was obviously standing on her tippy-toes because there was only a small gap between his face and hers. He only had to move his head down slightly and their lips would touch. He was so tempted, but he couldn't. He had to do something else. "Essi, I have to tell you this! I love you. I have for years. I've loved you so long that not loving you is unthinkable. The Ducks have tried to set me up with girls but I don't want them, I want you. I don't know if I fell for you when I first looked you in the eyes or back when I saw you dancing, but for so long I refused to recognise the feeling and when I did, it was too late, I was in the hospital, and you were gone."

As Adam had spoken, Esmeralda had stepped back. Adam was still cupping her cheek but the girl wasn't leaning into his touch anymore. When he looked at her, he dropped his hand. Her mouth was slacked slightly and her eyes were wide with fright, even in the low light, Adam couldn't fool himself into thinking she was just shocked. "Esmeralda..."

"No!" She shook her head, moving further away from him, her voice soaked with fresh, unshed tears. "Banks, don't! I c... can't." She looked him in the eyes before whispering, "I'm sorry." She turned and ran, dropping Adam's jacket and running straight passed Phoebe, who picked up Adam's jacket with a confused look on her face.

"What happened?" Phoebe asked, handing Adam his jacket.

The boy took his jacket numbly as he looked at where Esmeralda had disappeared. "I told her I loved her and she said 'no, she couldn't'," Adam said in a dumbfounded voice.

"Oh, Adam, I'm so sorry," Phoebe exclaimed, hugging her brother.

Adam just shook his head and made Phoebe let go before walking off to his car, Phoebe following behind.

_**HE ADMITS IT!!!!! But why-oh-why did Esmeralda run away??? Who knows? Only the crazy lady writing this humorous, depressive, romance. God, there must be something seriously wrong with her head. Don't worry, I have a great reason behind Esmeralda's behavior but you won't find out just yet!!!! Remember, reviews are always welcome.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


	16. What Us?

_**I don't own the Ducks and reviews are great. Sorry it's so short.**_

She stumbled into the dorm, letting the door slam closed behind her. She collapsed to the ground with her back against the side of her bed. The girl ignored the stinging pain in her back from where she collided with the wooden frame. Instead, Esmeralda just hugged herself and cried. She couldn't believe that he had told her he loved her. He shouldn't have!

Never before had she hated her family more then she did at that moment. She wished she hadn't had to turn and run, she wished she didn't have to cause Adam pain, but to save him pain, she had to cause him pain.

She didn't go to sleep that night, she just sat there and cried. All the pain she had felt inflicted on her was nothing to what she felt at that moment but it was necessary.  
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"Adam, honey, why aren't you eating?"

"Not hungry, Mom," Adam mumbled, pushing his food around absentmindedly. For the last twenty minutes, Adam had been quiet, only Phoebe knew what was wrong.

"If you're sure," his mother said, unconvinced. "If you decide you want something later, I'll make you anything you feel like eating."

"It's okay, Mom, I'm just going to go to bed." Adam pushed his plate away and walked slowly upstairs, his shoulders slumped.

"What's wrong with him?" Jason asked, looking at the doorframe Adam had disappeared through. Phoebe didn't answer; she only dropped her head sadly. "Phoebe? What's wrong with Adam?"

"I... I can't tell you!"

"Don't you know?" Kelly questioned, putting her fork down as she surveyed her youngest sister.

"No, I know, I just can't tell you. Adam wouldn't want me to!" Phoebe sighed before mimicking Adam's earlier motion and pushed her plate away. "Maybe I be excused?"

Mr. Banks nodded and Phoebe quickly got up, leaving the dining room. The sixteen-year-old made her way up the stairs and stopped outside Adam's room. She quickly opened the door to find her brother laying on his bed, one arm draped over his eyes. Phoebe sighed and stepped in to the room.

"Everyone's worried about you," Phoebe informed him.

"Don't care," was Adam's sharp reply.

Phoebe sighed again and sat on the edge of Adam's bed. "Adam, tell me what happened."

"I took your advice. I told her how I felt and she ran off," Adam mumbled, not uncovering his eyes.

"Adam, I'm sure there's a reason!" Phoebe assured, trying to convince herself as well as Adam. "She _likes_ you! I know she does. She has since we were little. I'm sorry my advice backfired but I thought that when you told her... well I always though you two would end up together." Phoebe sighed a third time and patted her brother's arm before getting up and leaving Adam alone.

When she walked into her room, she was met with her three other siblings. Her brother stood near her dressing table, Maria sat on her bed and Kelly stood next to the door, pushing it shut the moment Phoebe was clear of it.

"Spill!" was the only word Maria said for all three of them.

Phoebe hesitated before dropping her head. "Adam told Essi he loved her!"

"That's a good thing, why is he sad?" Jason asked, a frown creasing his brow.

"Because she rejected him," Phoebe mumbled.

"WHAT?!"

"I don't understand it either. She loves him! She _loves_ him! I just don't get it!" Phoebe exclaimed, sitting down on her bed.

"Darla has her reasons. They may not be clear to us, but she does. She wouldn't have rejected Adam for any other reason," Jason said with confidence, his arms folded and a contemplative expression on his face.

The four siblings stayed silent as they thought this over. None of them had more to say on the matter.  
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_The soft whimpers of the small girl rang louder then any other sound in the world. They weren't loud in the way of volume, they were like a tick of a clock; something you could hear over everything else, no matter what. He located her easily._

_After the ceremony, his mother and her grandmother had taken them all to the beach. He didn't know why, but they did. She had slipped away almost immediately. Now she sat on a rock, the roaring waves smashing into the bottom of the rock. _

_Quietly, he slipped up to her and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. She turned her head into his shoulder and he knew she was crying. That was all she had done since her mother's accident. He didn't say a word; he simply ran his fingers through her thick, brown hair and held her to him. Only when all the tears had stopped running did she look up._

_Her brown eyes swum in a pool of red, looking as though they were on fire, her face was pale and her lips were chapped. Her nose was red from the mixture of cold ocean breeze and the endless tears._

"_How could he? How could _they_?" she pleaded for him to tell her in a weak voice that was saturated in more tears._

_He had no idea what she was talking of, so he simply kissed her forehead before tucking her head under his chin. Whenever 'they' was said, with no indication of whom, it tended to be her brother and father, but he didn't know what she was referring to when mentioning them._

"_You're not safe," she told him in a whisper, not lifting her head. "If they find out about us, you'll never be safe."_

"_What us?" he asked, pretending he didn't know what she was talking about. He did know though. Whenever he was near her, or heard her name mentioned, his breath would hitch and his heart skip a beat before increasing rapidly. He was only eight but he knew that she was something different._

"_Let's keep it that way," she said, lifting her head and offering him a sad smile. "What us, Banks?"_

_**I am sorry for the long wait, but my computer decided to screw around and delete the chapter. But this one is as close as possible. Thank god I write a lot of it at school on old fashioned paper and pen! Hope you liked it and don't hate me!**_


	17. Flood Of Memories

17. Flood Of Memories

His parents did start to notice that something was wrong. Adam barely left his room and hardly ate. His aura gave off the feeling of sorrow. The siblings gave him space, knowing how much it must hurt him. None of them thought to tell their parents though until they say their mother going to go into Adam's room. Kelly stopped her and took her to the lounge room down stairs where Mr. Banks was reading the paper. When they were told what happened, Mrs. Banks was very upset, always wishing Adam and Esmeralda would end up together. Mr. Banks didn't seem to care.

His children thought him to be heartless, but none of them saw him enter Adam's room on Sunday afternoon a few hours before he was to leave for Eden.

"Adam," Mr. Banks said, looking at his son who was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The young man simply looked at his father for a moment before returning back to his staring competition with the ceiling. With a sigh, Mr. Banks moved further into the room and sat on the edge of Adam's bed. "You know, I went to Eden Hall with Esmeralda's mother. She was a close friend. All through Eden we were best friends, much like you and the Charlie. When we went to university, she even introduced me to your mother. One day, after she had been dating Craig McGill for almost six years, she told me she didn't want to be my friend any more and I didn't understand why."

Mr. Banks looked at his son to see him looking back, listening with mild interest. "For years I wondered why. We had been great friends, I could tell her anything and I owed her for setting me up with your mother, who has made my life happy. When Phoebe ended up in the same dance class as Esmeralda and you ended up on the same team as David, I was shocked. I never thought Claudia would marry Craig let alone have his children. I didn't want you to get close to Esmeralda because I feared you becoming her friend like I was Claudia's friend and she turning around and hurt you like her mother hurt me. But you and her didn't end up as friends. The moment I saw that picture of you two, I was terrified. Claudia had told me why she stopped being my friend. I was telling her to dump Craig, he was no good for her... he threatened to hurt me if she didn't stop standing time with me. Esmeralda cares for you, but she takes after her mother, perhaps there is a reason she rejected you that you just don't see. Like I didn't see Claudia's reason, no matter how much she tried to tell me."

Adam blinked back tears as his father clapped him on the shoulder and walked to the door. "You two weren't... closer then close were you?" Adam's voice drifted over to Mr. Banks, whose hand was hovering over the door handle.

Mr. Banks chuckled and looked over his shoulder. "No, Adam, we were only friends, our personalities weren't as compatible as mine and your mother's, or yours and Esmeralda's."

"Thanks, Dad."

Mr. Banks quietly slipped out of the room and went into his office to finish paper work as Adam got up to take a shower and get ready to leave to go back to the dormitories. Although his father had made him feel a little better, he still felt like drowning himself and he wasn't looking forward to the Ducks questioning him. They were bound to notice a difference.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So are you going to tell me what's with Essi?"

"What do you mean?" Phoebe didn't meet Jesse's eye as she asked. She knew what he meant. They had seen Esmeralda briefly on Saturday and she was very miserable looking. They didn't stop to talk, mainly because Esmeralda didn't see them and was busy talking to Leslie, her mother's old friend. Esmeralda's hair usually had a soft, silky flow to it, but when they saw her, it fell limply down her back and her eyes had a red hue to them.

From the moment Jesse saw her, he had been asking Phoebe what was wrong. She had yet to tell him, since she knew neither Esmeralda nor Adam wanted people to know.

"You know what I mean, why was she looking so depressed?" Jesse asked, looking at her seriously.

"No idea."

"Liar."

"I'm not telling you! So stop asking, please," Phoebe begged, pouting up at Jesse.

The teenage boy's resolve broke and he gave in to the request. "Alright, I guess I should walk you home, Kelly's taking you back to Cutlan soon." The two walked in silence, their hands brushing every few moments as the two debated over taking each other's hand. When they stopped at the end of the Banks driveway, Jesse touched Phoebe's arm, making her turn and look at him. "Um... see you later at school," he said nervously before quickly leaning in and peaking Phoebe's cheek. He drew back, a deep blush to his dark cheeks before he made a hasty leave.

A giddy smile made its way onto Phoebe's face as she walked up the drive to the front door. Her face felt hot where Jesse had kissed it, which was odd because it had only been a very light touch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked back into his room, towelling his hair. As he did so, his eyes landed on his night stand. Dropping his towel, he walked over and opened the second draw. Pulling up the false bottom, he took out an old photo that was slightly tattered at the edges. Looking at it, he felt sad. Normally he felt sorrow but at the same time happiness. He would look at it and remember the day, one of his happiest days. David had always pushed him around and he was never brave enough to stand up to him, except for that day. He had been bad mouthing Esmeralda, telling her she was worthless and Adam had lost it. He remembered punching David and feeling his nose break under his fist.

When David had ran off, Adam had turned to Esmeralda to tell her not to listen to him, only to find that his words couldn't get out of his throat. When he turned, he found himself looking straight into plain brown eyes. They were the most common colour of brown but Adam couldn't help but think they were amazing. As they looked at each other, for the first time in the eyes, there was a flash of light. The two had looked over in start and saw Kelly smiling with a camera in her hands.

Adam had stolen the photo when he left for the Junior Goodwill Games although he had hidden it away from the team. He was already an outsider for being a preppy, he didn't need them seeing the picture his sisters called 'cute'. It was of him and Esmeralda looking each other in the eyes, a look of captivation on both their faces. Captivation, intrigue, and fast strengthening feelings, all that was written on their young faces!

Adam felt anger boil inside him as he looked at the picture. He held the long edge, determined to rip it like Esmeralda ripped him, but as he help it, ready to cause it to tear, but he couldn't. White hot tears appeared in his eyes as he let go of the photo, dropping it into the bin. He couldn't do it. As much as he tried to push everything of Esmeralda away from him, he couldn't. He still loved her, no matter how much he tried not to.

"Adam, are you ready to go?" Maria asked, walking into the room.

"Yeah," Adam replied, hoping his sister wouldn't realize how weak his voice was as he wiped away tears before looking at her. "Yeah, let's go."

"I'll... meet you down stairs, have to grab a jacket," Maria said distracted him.

"Okay," Adam said, not noticing any difference before hastily walking out to wash his face of any trace of tears.

Once Adam was out of the room, Maria moved over to the bin, wondering what it was she could see. When she picked it up, she recognised it straight away. "Oh, Adam," she sighed, knowing how sad Adam must feel. She tucked the photo into her handbag and went to get a jacket.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Esmeralda sat on the ground of her dormitory room, trying to stop her mind from wondering to the subject it had been on for the last two days. Adam!

She had no luck, memory's just kept coming.

"_Banks, stop splashing me!" the eight-year-old demanded, standing waist deep in the beach water. Her brown hair was wet in parts not having been fully wet yet by the nine-year-old in front of her._

"_What are you going to do if I don't?" the boy tempered, with a splash._

_Esmeralda glared at him before pushing the boy over. He fell back into the water, being submerged. When he remerged, he was splattering with one of his fists clenched. The girl started backing away, fearing he would hit her. She shot a look at their families sitting on the sand to far away to help._

"_Banks, please don..."_

"_Look what I found," Adam interrupted her, holding out his hand. When he opened it, Esmeralda saw a gold ring with three diamonds in it, the one in the middle larger then the two on either side, sitting in sand._

"_Beauty," Esmeralda whispered._

_Adam plucked it out of the sand in his hand and washed it in the water before leaning close to Esmeralda and reaching around her, unfastening her necklace. He slid the ring onto the chain and redid it. "Have it!"_

"_Thank you..." Esmeralda looked at the ring. "It says something on the inside."_

"_What does it say?"_

"_Esmeralda, Adam, come have some lunch," Mrs. McGill yelled over to them with a kind smile. The two forgot about the engraving at the prospect of filling their empty stomach._

Thinking back, Esmeralda wondered what was engraved on the ring she had given back to Adam. She knew he still wore it, she saw it the night they spent in his bed. The more she thought, the more she realized that the two spent most of their childhood arguing in one form or another, but at the same time doing sweet things for each other. Especially when Adam had been sick, just before the kiss!

"_You're so stupid," Esmeralda said the moment she stepped into Adam's room. The eight-year-old was wrapped up in his blankets, shivering even though he looked as though he was burning up. "I said you shouldn't play but you've taken to many pucks to the head or something."_

"_You were right," Adam croaked out through his sore throat._

"_Of course I was, pasty face," Esmeralda boasted cheerfully, moving over to the bed. She made Adam lift his head so she could sit with her back against the wall and Adam's head in her lap instead of on the pillow. "You look awful!"_

"_So I look like you on a good day?" Adam teased weakly before going into a coughing fit._

"_I'm not even going to reply because you're so sick," Esmeralda stated when Adam had calmed down and had some drink. She started running her fingers through his short hair in a soothing caress._

"_Mnnn, that feels nice," Adam admitted. "Why are you here?"_

_Esmeralda shrugged, even though Adam's closed eyes prevented him from seeing. "I don't know, just am, do you want me to go?"_

"_No, I feel better with you here."_

"_Then I'll stay here."_

Sighing, Esmeralda got into bed. It was early, only six, but she was exhausted and knew she would have a restless night. Tomorrow when she woke up, she'd ask Phoebe how Adam was. She knew her friend knew what happened, she only hoped she didn't hate her for it.


	18. A Change Is Needed

_**Sorry it took me so long to post again. I've been busy and wanted to get this chapter right. I promise I haven't abandoned the story. And reviews are great.**_

He had been right. The Ducks noticed something was wrong with him the moment he met up with them in the Court Yard after arrival. They had looked at him and noticed the strain to his smile, the coarseness to his voice and the dullness to his eyes and had started questioning him. He had dismissed their questions, saying he was fine and that he didn't want to talk about it. They didn't look happy but they didn't push the matter. Instead they started talking about their own weekend. They all easily had had better holidays then him but they didn't need him to vocalise that fact to work it out.

By the time it was dinner, the team was worried. He had not laughed at their jokes, he had half-heartedly agreed to play street hockey with them on the next weekend before going to Leo's birthday party, and he hadn't touched his lunch, claiming he had had a large breakfast, which of course had been proven a lie by his stomach choosing that moment to grumble in complaint of its lack of nurturance.

"Banks, eat!" Portman growled, stopping from shovelling his food into his own mouth for a moment to bark the command.

"I am!" Adam protested, pushing his food around with his fork.

"Playing with it is not classed as eating," Connie scolded in a motherly fashion. "Adam, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said before putting some food in his mouth. "There, now stop complaining."

"There is still something wrong with you, so spill," Fulton ordered with a menacing glare.

Adam glared back with one of his own, which shocked the table. "You know what, I'm full. I'm going to bed." He left without a goodbye and stalked to his room, where he slammed his door closed with furry. He began to pace in a way to release his anger before a wave of fatigue hit him. He was tired from lack of food but he refused to eat. Whenever he did, he felt like throwing up, and he didn't want to do that. He reasoned that he would have to start eating soon, or risk playing badly in a game, but he wasn't looking forward to food, or his next encounter with the Ducks.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phoebe walked into the room to see Esmeralda sleeping. This was odd, seeing as it was noon and Esmeralda didn't sleep in very late. Worried, the blonde walked over to her friend and shook her shoulder, getting no response. She shook her harder, finally waking her. Esmeralda had trouble waking up from her sleep but when she saw Phoebe, she groaned and buried her face in her pillow.

"Phoebe, yell at me late," Esmeralda mumbled.

"Why would I yell at you?" Phoebe asked in confusion, looking down at her friend.

"I hurt your brother."

"I know, and I don't know why, but I'm not going to yell at you. It has nothing to do with me as long as you both don't drag me into it." Phoebe sat on the edge of her friend's bed and took a good look at her.

Her face was pale and had a slight pasty complexion, her eyes were dull and her hair lacked the shine it usually had. She looked like Adam.

"How... how is he?" Esmeralda asked slowly.

"Heartbroken," Phoebe answered truthfully. "He kinda looks like you actually. Essi, why did you do it?"

Esmeralda just shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Well we agree on that! I don't understand! You love him! I know you do!"

Phoebe knew she had stepped a line when Esmeralda's face contorted with anger. "You have no idea how I feel so don't you dare make assumptions!" She threw the blankets back and jumped out of bed, revealing that she was in actual clothing. She grabbed her shoes and handbag and walked out of the room, leaving a confused Phoebe behind.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Esmeralda didn't come back to the room till late. It was well passed curfew and how she managed to not get caught was beyond Phoebe's comprehension. She still looked awful but no longer angry. Truthfully she looked exhausted. When she saw that Phoebe was awake, she went and laid down next to her friend on her bed.

"Please don't ask me why? You don't want to know the answer and I don't want to tell you," Esmeralda pleaded Phoebe, her eyes facing straight up at the ceiling.

"Okay, I won't even mention it again unless I have to," Phoebe assured, hugging her best friend.

"Thank you."

"Are you alright though? You look like shit."

"Thanks, Phoebs. I'm fine, I just..." Esmeralda broke off as tears filled her eyes. "Every day of my life I've wished it was different. But never have I wanted it more then since rejecting Banks."

Phoebe just tightened her grip till Esmeralda stopped shaking with tears. When she did, she sat up and went over to her side of the room, getting her pyjamas out. As she changed, she informed Phoebe of something she had forgotten about. "You remember that Leo's birthday is next weekend and so is his annual party."

"Oh yeah... I hope I get to remember this one." Phoebe laughed. The last party had been the first one her mother gave her permission to drink. She accidentally drunk too much and woke up the next day at home with holes in her recollections. Thankfully she had her video camera there so she remembered most of it through that, and Maria had been there to look after her.

Esmeralda however, was lucky to remember any of it, but that had been who she was back then. She had changed drastically at the start of the year. Her New Years resolution was to change her act, which she had done a marvellous job of.

"So anyway, I got Leo a guitar stand cause he's always bitching about having to let it lean against the wall." Esmeralda slipped into her bed and looked over at Phoebe. "Want to go halves?"

"Nah, I bought him a t-shirt. I think he'll like it." Phoebe snuggled back under her covers comfortable. "Night, Essi."

"Night, Phoebe."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sighing Esmeralda reached over to her handbag and took out her phone. She looked at it for a moment, flicked it open, then flicked it closed and put it down. Again she did it, this time not putting it down. Instead she went into the message section and paused, not knowing what to text.

_**Banks, I'm sorry I hurt you, but... just believe me when I say I had to. Please forgive me, I really didn't mean to cause you so much pain. I care about you; you're a friend, even though we fight a lot. Please, please forgive me! I miss you! McGill.**_

She read it through three times before putting Adam's number in and sending it to him. She wondered if he would actually read it when he saw it was from her. She doubted it but she really hoped he would.

What Phoebe said about him broke her heart even more then it already was. She couldn't believe she hurt him as much as she did. Esmeralda knew that Adam liked her but she had never thought he loved her. That had been a shock and made what she had to do so much harder.

After an hour, in which Esmeralda sat on the floor of her dormitory doing her homework, she finally got a reply. Timidly she picked up her phone and pressed the open button. The message was only two capital words that ripped into the brunette harshly.

**_PISS OFF!_**

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
_**

_**"**Sir, my gracious Lord,_

_To chide at your extreams it not becomes me:_

_O pardon that I name 'em; your high self,_

_The gracious mark o' th' land; you have obscur'd_

_With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid,_

_Most goddess-like... most goddess**-**_like... Arrgh, I can't get it!" Esmeralda dropped down onto the bench seat and closed the book in her hands, hitting herself in the head as she did.

Chuckling, the boy with her sat on the table, his feet on the bench next to Esmeralda. "You were doing fine a few days ago. What happened?"

"I ripped my heart and someone else's into a million painful pieces," Esmeralda confessed, sighing in exasperation. "And he'll never forgive me. Though, I think I'd loose respect in him if he forgave me so quickly."

"Well that was dumb," the boy replied.

"It was necessary." Esmeralda ran her fingers through her hair that had been looking limp for a while now. She really needed to do something about it. "Elliot, let's just try to get this bloody scene done!"

"Okay," Elliot agreed jumping off the table.

The two were in the workshop together and were currently at the park trying to rehearse their lines but Esmeralda could just not get into character today. As the brunette girl got up and opened her book to the lines, there was a shout of a familiar voice.

"Essi!"

Esmeralda turned and saw the Ducks decked out in skating gear, Goldberg having been the one to shout. Forcing a smile, Esmeralda waved at them before trying to go back to her script. Instead the Ducks decided to skate over, Adam being dragged along.

"What you up to?" Connie asked, giving the girl a hug.

"Nothing much, just reading my script for the workshop," Esmeralda explained, hoping the group would take the hint and leave. She did not want to be around Adam and she knew he didn't want to be around her.

"Cool," Averman said, bending over almost backwards to get a glimpse of the front cover. "Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. Who are you in it?"

"Perdita and Elliot plays Florizel."

"Who?" Dwayne scrunched up his face in confusion.

"I'm Elliot and Florizel is Perdita's love," Elliot added into the conversation, smiling at the group.

"Oh, so you two have to act in _love_?" Charlie asked in a taunting voice.

Esmeralda just gave him a blank look, not being amused at all. "Yes, that is the plot."

"You know what, I think we should get going," Adam spoke up, a bored expression on his face. At the sound of his voice, filled with a cutting tone, Esmeralda's brown eyes welled up with tears. "Aren't we supposed to be skating?"

"Right, yeah, we should go," Fulton agreed, looking from Adam to Esmeralda. "See ya girl." The strong boy stepped forward and hugged Esmeralda. "Have you lost weight?" He held the brunette at arms length with his hands resting on her thin shoulders. Her form was skinner and she was a few skipped meals away from being nothing but skin and bones.

"Yeah, there's a stomach bug going around, it turns you off your meals. Sucks I know. I have enough trouble keeping on weight as it is with my dancing," Esmeralda lied fluently. The only one who saw through her lie was Adam but he was blatantly not looking at her.

"You know, I think Cake-eater might have it," Averman said slowly, looking at the tall boy who had lost a fair bit of weight but still had muscle-tone.

With a few more hugs – none being from Adam – the skater crew decided to leave. As they went to walk off, Esmeralda grabbed Adam's arm without the other Ducks realizing.

"What?!" he snapped, gritting his teethe as he was forced to face the girl. "What do you possible want from me? What else is there for you to take from me?"

Esmeralda gasped at Adam's vicious voice. Tears ran tracks down her cheeks, leaving lines in her makeup. She wiped them away before reply in a shaky voice. "I'm sorry, Adam, but I had to. I really, really didn't want to hurt you and I'm sorry that I did. I never thought you loved me."

Adam was quiet for some time before finally uttering a dry chuckle. "Do you know what I find funny?" Esmeralda shook her head slowly, knowing she was going to regret the answer. "You were worried that I was taking advantage of you, using you for my own purposes, where really you were using me."

"Adam..."

"STOP!" Adam yelled, clenching his fist tightly. "Don't _ever_ call me that!" The blond boy raised his hand and Esmeralda flinched, thinking he was going to hit him. Instead he put his hand on her neck and forced her chin up to look at him. Adam's expression softened slightly when he realized she thought he was going to hurt her, but his voice was still ruff with anger. "I never, _never_ want you to call me that again." He then sighed. "No matter how angry I am, I still love you and I won't hit you. Alright?"

Esmeralda nodded mutely, her lip quivering and tears fell down her face. For a moment all the bitterness to the boy's face disappeared and he softly touched her lip with his thumb. Not even a second later he drew back his hand sharply and skated off angrily.

The girl stayed in shock over what happened till Elliot made himself known. "So he's the guy that you hurt!"

Esmeralda jumped and turned around. "How long have you been there?"

Elliot smiled sadly. "Don't worry, I walked off when you stopped that boy. I figured you didn't want witnesses to that."

Esmeralda sat down on the bench heavily. "I can't handle this! I need a change."

"What kind of change?" Elliot sat next to his co-star.

"I don't know. I just need a change. Can we pick this up tomorrow?" Esmeralda got up and grabbed her bag, obviously not caring what the brown-haired boy's answer was.

"Don't forget that Leo's party is tonight," Elliot reminded her as he nodded for Esmeralda to leave.

"I know, see you tonight." With that Esmeralda ran off, leaving a bewildered Elliot behind.


	19. Still Broken

19. Still Broken

_**Sorry it has taken me so long to update but school and work have been getting in the way so yeah, but hopefully it will calm down and I can update more often.**_

A small bell signaled her entry as she walked through the door. The room had a smell to it that was not unexpected but was overwhelming and made her head spin a little. She walked over to the counter and waited for someone to come see her. Not too long after a smiling woman walked over.

"How may I help you?" she asked

"Make me different," instructed Esmeralda.

"Will do."

"So why did he invite us again?" Averman asked for the tenth time since they had stepped in the elevator.

"I told you." Phoebe sighed. "Leo is a good judge of character; he likes you guys and said he would love to have you at his party."

"Averman, just be glad he invited you at all," Russ told him as the other boy went to open his mouth.

"Hey, Phoebe, have you seen Essi?" Maria asked her sister as she fiddled with her hair.

"Not since she left the dorms this morning. Why?" Phoebe replied, frowning in confusion.

"Well I saw Elliot and he said Essi left their rehearsal thing early, saying she needed a change."

The elevator door opened and the group walked out into the foyer. Loud music was drifting through the thick door, preventing people inside from hearing their knocks.

"A change? How so?" Phoebe asked, knocking on the door as she did.

"No idea, but I can think of why she would want a change." Maria pointedly looked at Adam behind the Ducks back before turning to look at the mirror on the foyer wall.

"Maria, you look fine," Connie assured upon seeing the older girl fixing her appearance.

"I know, but… I don't know. I could have sworn Kristy was flirting with this girl in Science."

"Maria, Kristy would never do that. She was probably being her usual bubbly self," Phoebe assured her sister. She had her phone to her ear, seeing as no one inside could hear them. "Clover, hey, open the door, please."

Within a minute of Phoebe hanging up, the door opened to reveal Clover. Her blonde hair was curled and framed her face, and she wore a dark purple dress with light purple poke-a-dots over it. "Sorry to make you wait. The music is blaring. Thank god Kevin isn't here. He's out with my parents."

"I was just about to ask that actually," Phoebe admitted.

"I guessed that. Come on, Leo is somewhere among the mob." Clover led them inside before wondering off to talk to other friends.

"Hey, Adam, last year mom said I could have one drink at the party. She told us you could have two," Phoebe started to explain. "Now if you want to loose count of the amount, Maria and I won't tell mom and seeing as you are spending the night at Charlie's with his mother out, mom will never have to know. But if you don't want to, then remember that the sodas in the fridge are mixed drinks and the sodas in the cooler are non-mixed. Maria made that mistake last year and she ended up having the room spin."

"Okay." Adam nodded his head, showing he understood.

They found Leo over near the pool table, leaning against it and not minding that he might be disturbing the game. He had a forest green button up shirt on with dark blue jeans, and a beer was resting in his hand.

"Hey, you made it." He smiled upon seeing them and hugged Phoebe and Maria when they stepped forward for one.

"Happy birthday," chimed Phoebe as she handed over her present. It was a blank button up shirt with a silver pattern on it, much the same style as he already wore.

Leo thanked her as Maria handed him a smaller parcel. It turned out to be a black necklace with a shark tooth on it.

"Thanks, Phoebe, thanks, Maria." Leo kissed both the girls on the cheek before tucking his presents under his arm.

"Sorry, but we didn't know what to get you," confessed Russ, feeling guilty for coming to his birthday party with no gift.

"That's alright. I told everyone not to get me anything but the girls like to spoil me."

Both Phoebe and Maria snorted and shoved Leo, making him bump the pool table.

"Hey!" one of the players scolded.

"Sorry, Kegzy, didn't mean to, mate," Leo apologized with a kind smile.

Someone in the shadowed end of the pool table laughed. "Don't apologize, Leo, his loosing anyway." The girl walked around the table to come up behind the white ball. As she leant over the table, Portman gave a low whistle, although it was doubtful anyone but the people standing next to him could hear it over the music. He nudged Luis and pointed to the girl's behind.

The girl either had had enough drinks to impair her judgment; she didn't realize how short her skirt was, or she just didn't care but the black, pleated skirt she wore was not the best for playing pool. Along with the skirt she wore black, knee-high boots and a red halter top. Her thick hair fell to about in between her shoulder blades and she had a side fringe, with one red streak on the side opposite her fringe.

When she stood and turned, the group gasped. Even with the new clothing, new hair style, the dark eye shadow and the blood red lipstick coating her lips, they could still recognize her. Esmeralda McGill.

"Essi?" Phoebe questioned, her eyes wide in disbelief. The girl just nodded at her best friend. "But… but… your clothes, and your makeup… and your HAIR! What did you do to your hair? It used to be halfway down your back."

"I got it cut… don't you like it?" Esmeralda looked worried at her friend's reaction.

"It's not that." Phoebe groped for words. "It's… it's…"

"Different," finished Guy.

All of them knew that Esmeralda was shy about wearing eye-catching and sexy clothing, which was why her choice in attire was shocking.

"Oh." Esmeralda moved closer to Leo. "Move your ass, Leo."

Leo did as he was told and Esmeralda took another shot, missing. "Portman, Averman, stop looking at my ass."

"Sorry, but you have my compliments," Portman said, not sounding sorry in the least.

"Yeah, whatever." Esmeralda grabbed her Jim Bean off the edge of the pool table as Kegzy lines up the white ball. "Oh, this is Elvin Keg, but everyone calls him Kegzy."

"Hi," Kegzy greeted absentmindedly. Just as he went to take the shot Esmeralda knocked the table with her butt as she took a sip from her bottle. "Hey!"

"What?"

"Bitch." Kegzy laughed, obviously not minding that Esmeralda almost ruined his shot. He moved the white ball back where it had been and lined it up again. Unfortunately for him he sunk the black ball, which made Esmeralda double over with laughter.

"Come on, Kegzy, she's had enough to make her see double, how could you loose?" Leo exclaimed, an amused smile on his face.

"Not true!" Esmeralda piped up, finally calming down. "One and a half thanks."

"Hey, where are the drinks?" Adam asked, looking blatantly at Leo.

"That way." As he pointed with the hand clasping his beer, the group saw the white gold ring on his finger that had a dark blue stone set in it. Seeing the group admiring it, he smiled. "Nice huh? My dad gave it to me. It's been in my family for years."

"Yeah, it is nice," agreed Adam. "What drink do you recommend?"

"Jim Bean is my favorite," Esmeralda told him.

"Yeah thanks," Adam replied in a deadpan voice before he walked off.

Esmeralda had a wounded expression before Leo spoke up, taking her mind off what happened. "Essi, do you remember our deal?"

The brunette dancer looked around before groaning and putting her head back. "Do I have to?" she whined, with a childish stomp of her foot for good measure.

"Yes." Leo grabbed Esmeralda's hand, the one that wasn't hold her drink, and pulled her to where people were dancing, just as Aimee, or Jamie came out of a thick of people.

The Ducks realized that Esmeralda had a deal with Leo to keep the Mc'Son twins away from him. The group ended up splitting off. Maria found Kristy in the crowd and went over to her, Phoebe saw Jesse and shyly walked over to him, and the rest of the group went their separate ways.

"Esmeralda, what's wrong?" Leo asked the girl as he pulled her close.

"Nothing." Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as Leo put his hand on her back.

"Stop lying, love, and tell me what is wrong," demanded the musician.

"I broke him!"

"Broke who?"

"_Him!"_

"Oh, well why did you do that?"

"It had to be done, but… I changed to… fix myself but if his still broken then I am too." Esmeralda sniffed and took a sip of her drink. "But I don't want to ruin your birthday."

"Oh, Love." Leo kissed her cheek. "You could never ruin my birthday. Friends always come first in my book. And you and Adam will be fine, just give it time."

"Thanks, Leo."

"No problem."

The party was still raging on five hours later. It was close to midnight and yet no one was looking ready to go home. Esmeralda was dancing with Phoebe and Bianca Bradley, who was a cheerleader that was dating Kegzy. The three girls were singing at the top of their lungs as they danced. The song was 'If It Makes You Happy'. Phoebe wasn't drunk but the other two girls were well on their way.

"_Well, O.K. I made this up_!" The three girls sung.

"_I promised you I'd never give up_."

"_If it makes you happy,_

_It can't be all that bad._

_If it makes you happy,_

_Then why the hell are you so sad?"_

Leo came over laughing as Phoebe spun Bianca. "Who let you three near the karaoke machine to choose the music?"

All three girls just shrugged before Esmeralda went to take a step and stumbled. Thankfully the still laughing Leo caught her. "Too much to drink?"

"Compared to last year I am behaving myself," Esmeralda defended herself with slurred words.

"That's true," Phoebe agreed. "You were drunk practically all the time last year; you even went to school drunk once. But you decided to make a change and you have really stuck to your resolve. I'm really proud of you."

"Admittedly I'm proud of myself."

"Yeah, the only down fall is you won't be dancing on the table any more." Leo snapped his fingers in mock disappointment.

"That was a dare," Esmeralda reminded him.

"So, Essi, what's with the change anyway?" Phoebe tested. She knew that Esmeralda was a truthful drunk.

"I felt broken and like I had no way to change it so I made a step to try and fix it." She didn't even seem to notice what she was saying but Phoebe's next question registered in her intoxicated mind.

"Why did you reject Adam?"

Esmeralda's face turned sorrowful. "Three broken ribs, seven skull fractures, arm and/or leg broken five times, multiple concussions and hospitalized twice. That's why."

Before Phoebe could question Esmeralda further, the brunette walked off, out onto the balcony.

He was actually having a lot of fun, although admittedly he was slightly intoxicated. Adam was standing in the kitchen with Fulton and Ken, along with some people he had only met that night. There was Elvin Keg, from earlier, Chelsea Tracy, a hockey player from Cutlan they had actually versed, Freddie Lindsey, a cheerleader, whose full first name was actually Frederica, Nelson Trink, who was in Leo's band, and Anthony Devlin, who was Elliot's half brother.

"No, I'm serious, I fell flat on my face the first time I ever skated," Chelsea told them, making them laugh at the retelling of her clumsiness.

Nelson just slung his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "Yeah but I bet you looked cute doing it."

"Shut up." The hockey girl elbowed him in the stomach lightly as she blushed.

"So, Ken, right?" Freddie asked, her eyes a little glassy from the alcohol.

"Yeah," the small boy answered.

"You were in the Olympics for figure skating, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was."

"Why did you change?"

"The shelf life for a figure skater is substantially shorter then that of a hockey player," explained Ken.

"Oh, alright."

"Yeah, and now he just can't leave the Ducks," added Fulton, the only one not drinking in their group, seeing as he was allergic.

"Now, you're Phoebe's brother, aren't you?" Anthony pointed to Adam.

"Yeah, I am. Adam Banks."

"I versed you!" Chelsea stated with an enthusiastic jump.

"I know."

"You're easily the best hockey player I have ever met!" flattered the red head.

"Thanks." Adam blushed at the compliment, not knowing what to say. He didn't actually remember her from the match, seeing as they all wore helmets and he was concentrating on the puck.

"Anyway," Anthony cut in. "If you find the Mc'Son twins as annoying as Leo does, I suggest you hide. They are coming this way."

"Thanks for the heads up." Adam left the kitchen and made his way to the balcony, not noticing the girl standing off to the side, leaning on the railing. He sighed and took a sip of his Jim Bean, drawing the attention of the girl.

"I see you took my recommendation."

With a jump, the blond boy looked over to see Esmeralda looking down towards the street below. "Yeah, I did. McGill, what are you doing out here?"

"Getting some fresh air and avoiding Phoebe's questions," she admitted. "Banks… I don't expect you to forgive me anytime soon. I think I'll actually loose respect in you if you did. But can you tell me that one day we'll be friends again? I hate not being your friend."

"McGill, I can't promise you anything at the moment for two reasons. One: I am drunk." At that moment he gave a slight, involuntary sway, making Esmeralda grab his shoulders to steady him as she giggled. "And two…" Adam moved closer to her so his nose brushed hers. "I don't think I can be just your friend."

Esmeralda nodded, not moving away. "Okay, but if we aren't ever going to be friends again, let me just assure you that I wasn't using you. I promise."

She went to walk back inside but Adam grabbed her hand and pulled her back, kissing her on the lips. "I never said we couldn't be friends one day," he whispered, his hot breath hitting her cheek and making her smell the alcohol she knew was also on her breath. "I just said I can't tell you tonight. Give me some time."

Esmeralda nodded again before slipping her hand out of the boy's grasp and walking inside. She walked through the living room, heading for the dining room which would then lead to the kitchen. As she entered the dining room, however, two, identical voices reached her ears.

"I can't believe it! She's such a skank."

"I know. We can't even make him hate her."

"Like, she had sex with Leo… well, at least Adam _thinks_ she did. How can he not find her a slut?"

"She doesn't disserve him anyway."

"Maybe she told him how Kevin wasn't her son. Although it would be hard for the Ducks to believe seeing as he looks too much like her to just be her nephew."

As Esmeralda registered the meaning behind the words, anger started to make its way through her veins. She drunk the rest of her drink, set it on the dining room table and walked over to where the voices came from and surprise, surprise, she found Aimee and Jamie.

"Hi, girls," she said with a falsely cheerful attitude.

"Oh, hi, Essi," the two girls said together, in a condescending voice.

"Yeah, I'll drop the friendly act," she assured them. "Especially seeing as I have a great desire to hurt you at the moment."

"Why?" Jamie asked, trying and failing to look innocent.

"Because."

Before the girls could get Esmeralda to elaborate, the brunette pulled her arm back and punched Aimee, who was closest, in the nose. Aimee, who was standing in front of Jamie, fell back, hitting Jamie in the nose. Both girls laid on the ground, their noses bleeding as they cried.

"That is for spreading rumors about me to my friends," Esmeralda told them as Kegzy, Nelson and Dwayne came over.

"Going off, Essi," praised Kegzy.

"That was awesome," added Nelson.

Esmeralda, still being angry, ignored their complements and walked over to the closet near the front door, grabbing her jacket out of it.

"Essi, wait up," Dwayne demanded. He ran over to her as she reached for the door handle of the front door. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I've actually wanted to do that for years," admitted Esmeralda.

"Okay. I want to apologize for believing those two about Kevin. I should have asked you about it instead of listening to them."

"Yes, you should have," agreed Esmeralda. "But I forgive you." With that she opened the door and left the party.

_**There you are! She punched one and got the other as well. Talk about your two birds with one stone. Hope you liked it and seeing as my tests are finished I have about three weeks down time so hopefully I can write more.**_

_**If you like the way I portray the Ducks then check out my other story Portman Twins. You don't have to but a review to this story (the one you're reading now) would be great.**_

…_**o0Black-Sand0o…**_


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